Not even an ad blitz featuring NFL great Tom Brady was enough to get Hertz’s experimental electric car rental push a fresh set of downs. By now you’ve undoubtedly heard the rental giant is dumping about 20,000 EVs from its fleet, with people already spotting what some consider deals on the used market as a result. This would be the first of two major blows against the EV adoption push in the past week.
Waiting at a lonely EV charger sure looks like fun.
Hertz has said it will replace all those EVs with traditional internal combustion engine vehicles. That’s making some electrification enthusiasts see red, especially since Hertz said one of the reasons for the shift was sky-high damage and collision costs for Teslas and other brands. We’ve point out that’s why EV insurance rates are crippling, keeping some from making the transition away from gas.
This is an abrupt turn from Hertz’s bold plan to make 25% of its rental fleet electrified by the end of this year. While some EV proponents are trying to play it off as no big deal, it’s surely a black eye for the movement. It also comes as electric car sales slow after showing explosive growth earlier, signaling that the revolution might have been a blip in the grand scheme of the industry.
What’s more, this selloff of EVs by Hertz will further contribute to rapidly eroding values of used electric cars. According to iSeeCars, while overall used vehicle values have dropped 5.1% from late 2022 to late 2023, used EV values have absolutely plummeted at a rate of 33.7%.
The bad news for EVs doesn’t end there. As covered by local media in Chicago, the recent cold snap has left Teslas and other electric cars stranded at chargers. The batteries simply won’t charge while some charging stations were down, apparently because of the frigid temperatures.
We’ve seen this problem in other areas where temperatures plunge into the negative digits during the winter months. But this latest news out of Chicago is making even more people aware of yet another big drawback to EV ownership.
Image via Hertz
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