White House praised Hertz for 'accelerating the EV transition' months before company began dumping EVs

Fox Business ^ | 1/12/24 | Thomas Catenacci

[Libloather]

The White House praised Hertz, one of the four largest car rental companies in the world, for its efforts to "substantially increase" electric vehicle (EV) rentals months before the company announced it would largely abandon EVs over increasing costs.

On Thursday, Hertz Global Holdings announced in financial filings that it made the "strategic decision" to sell approximately 20,000 EVs from its U.S. fleet, or about one-third of its global EV fleet. According to the documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Hertz's sales of EVs began in December and will continue in an orderly fashion throughout 2024, and a portion of the proceeds from those transactions will be invested in new gas-powered cars.

"The Company expects this action to better balance supply against expected demand of EVs," the company stated, before pointing to the high costs of managing EVs. "This will position the Company to eliminate a disproportionate number of lower margin rentals and reduce damage expense associated with EVs. The Company will continue to execute its strategy around EV mobility and offer customers a wide selection of vehicles."

"Going forward, the Company will continue to actively manage the total size of its EV fleet, as well as the allocation of EVs among customer segments, including leisure, corporate, government and rideshare," it continued.

However, prior to the announcement Thursday, the White House had repeatedly lauded Hertz for the company's public commitments to transition its fleet to one more reliant on EVs.

For example, in March 2023, the White House highlighted Hertz's efforts and said the company was playing a role in "accelerating the EV transition." The fact sheet stated that Hertz, in addition to other private sector and public sector entities, would help ensure President Biden's goal of having 50% of total vehicle sales be electric by 2030.

[Jim Noble]

I think the idea of an “EV transition” is absurd, for many reasons.

EVs will find a niche. I bought an electric snowblower this year and I couldn’t be happier with it.

But ICE vehicles will remain mainstream, indefinitely.

[Jim Noble]

God knows Biden is causing the downfall of a nation

Your anger is misdirected.

Biden does nothing.

[wjcsux]

“Some irony associated with a name like Hertz and EVs. Hopefully the rental company will be making these mistakes with decreasing frequency.”
Hopefully, Hertz fired the individuals responsible for this fiasco that cost them millions of dollars.

[cymbeline]

“Some irony associated with a name like Hertz and EVs.”

Are you saying that EVs have AC motors?

[scrabblehack]

Is it more likely someone will buy an EV from Hertz than from a dealer? I’m sure it’s cheaper.

A former coworker retired — some years ago he had bought a used car from Enterprise — had good luck with it.

[minnesota_bound]

Each charging station uses about 1,000+ electricity as an average home.
1.25kw/h for a home and 350kw for the charger.
He is charging at 135kw which he says is equivalent to 106 homes.
If he used all 350kw that would be 280 homes. Just 1 charger.
If all 6 chargers in the video were running at full capacity that would be 1,080 homes.....

Just one charging station. It was a scam from the get go.

Note the charge times says 12 minutes which already is double what it takes to get gas. The video does not say where he is starting from and going to for percent of charge.

Food for Thought About “Climate Friendly” Electric Vehicles
https://rumble.com/v475lfu-food-for-thought-about-climate-friendly-electric-vehicles.html

[minnesota_bound]

Now times that by the over 200 million cars and trucks gas and diesel vehicles and the number charging stations needed and the power plant run by solar and windmills.

[volunbeer]

Grid and even production limitations are a major reason why the “mandates” are not going to work and this video is quite accurate. Imagine a cul-de-sac in a neighborhood with three or four EV owners. You would have to redo the entire transmission system from the feed to the transformer and even to the homes themselves.

It would cost a LOT of money and resources as Elon has pointed out. The math on the video is accurate.

The sweet spot for an EV is using it for commuting and plugging it in to a wall charger at night (preferably in a garage that does not get too cold). That is where the technology can shine and depending on your source of supply (mine is hydro for example) I would probably save money over the life of the vehicle and if I was concerned about “emissions” it would be cleaner.

However, my circumstances are quite rare. It’s not a one-size fits all solution and it will not work well for all people or communities. The battery tech is ill-suited in my humble opinion for larger vehicles such as buses, semis, tractors, or other heavy equipment.