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If you’re looking for a big discount on a Tesla, consider Hertz: the rental car company is selling 20,000 of its electric vehicles, partly due to a lack of demand.
On Thursday, Hertz issued a stock exchange filing announcing it would try to resell the cars from the company’s US fleet. “The company expects this action to better balance supply against expected demand of EVs,” it wrote. Selling off the cars will also help Hertz address the high repair costs and lower resale margins associated with the EVs.
(Credit: Hertz)Although Hertz remains committed to its remaining EV fleet, the news is another sign that electric vehicle momentum is deflating in the US, with unsold cars piling up at dealerships. While a record 1.2 million electric cars were sold in the country last year, the EVs still only made up 7.6% of the market, according to Kelley Blue Book.
In the stock exchange filing, Hertz also noted that it plans on taking some of the money made from EV resales to buy gas-powered vehicles.
Back in 2021, Hertz grabbed headlines for seeking to order 100,000 vehicles from Tesla. However, Hertz has since pumped the brakes on its EV ambitions. This past October, the company’s CEO said it would slow the pace of adding new electric vehicles, citing the high repair costs and the resale prices for Teslas falling.
But in some good news for consumers, Hertz is reselling its Tesla vehicles at relatively affordable prices, starting as low as $20,525 for a 2021 Tesla Model 3. According to Hertz’s last annual financial report, the company owned about 43,000 Teslas back in December 2022.