Hertz CEO gambled it all on EVs, now he’s resigning in disgrace

American Thinker ^ | 03/19/24 | Olivia Murray

[SeekAndFind]

As John Adams said:

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

Now, if Stephen Scherr had taken Adams’s observation into consideration, he might still have a job. (However, no sympathy from me; he’ll be employed in no time at all, making more bad decisions that inevitably cost me money, in one way or another.) From a report at the New York Post this afternoon:

Hertz, one of the four largest car rental companies in the world, is replacing its CEO after the company reversed its bet on electric vehicle rentals over increasing costs.

Stephen Scherr will step down as Hertz Global Holdings Inc.’s chief executive officer and member of the company’s Board of Directors effective March 31, the company announced Friday.

…

Scherr’s resignation comes as the car rental company struggles with the higher repair costs and low demand for EV rentals.

I’ve previously written on Hertz’s battery-powered car flops—first in November, when Hertz had to admit it wasn’t even close to meeting its goal of an expansive E.V. fleet because the cars were way too expensive with too many liabilities; then in January of this year, when the company announced it was reneging on its promise altogether, and selling off around half(?) of the E.V.s the company still had.

To bring this back to Adams’s wisdom, the stubborn facts of E.V.s remain—and the idea that a car rental company would transition a major portion of its fleet to E.V.s… is one of the dumbest and most asinine corporate decisions I’ve ever heard.

[bosco24]

“I arrived at a destination and EVs was all that Hertz had in inventory, I’d make a beeline over to the Avis counter.”

My daughter went to Houston on a business trip and Hertz did not have the rental she reserved. They only had full-size vans or a huge selection of EVs.

She was not as wise as you and tried out an EV. Her trip was a disaster as she spent her off work hours searching for chargers that were available and working.

It seems that most of the available chargers were not working. There will not be an EV of any kind in her future.

[doorgunner69]

Overpriced and overize electric golf cart fanbois not pleased.

[SamAdams76]

My guess was that this CEO was a Lefty and wanted to gain the accolades of his fellow Lefties by leading the first company to go all "green" with a fleet of EVs.

Basically he put his ego and quest for fame ahead of the financial interests of the company he was hired to run. That was my take, anyhow.

Well I checked out his bio and my guess appears to be right on target. He is also a member of the CFR, a globalist society with a very Lefty bent.

[MikeD]

I had a similar experience on a recent trip back to my home office. Despite having a reservation, my rental company was out of cars aside from EVs. I knew my home office had chargers on-site, so I figured I'd be OK. The rental company told me I had to bring it back with at least 70% charge, and the range on the car should be 250-300 miles. I get the car, and it only has 73% charge, so I know I'll have to put a lot into it before return. It's roughly 10 miles from the rental lot to my hotel, and 2 miles from my hotel to work. By the time I get to the hotel, get dinner nearby, and go to work the next morning, I'm down to 59%. I plug in the car at the work charger at lunch just to see how long it takes to recharge. After 45 minutes, I was up to 63% (!). I drive the car to a charger closer to my office and decide to leave it in for the afternoon. After another four hours (and ~$8 in charges, as we get charged for using the chargers at work) I'm back up to ~97%. By the time I turn the car in the next day I'm down to 92%.

If it wasn't for the ability to plug the car in for five hours while I was at work, I would have been hosed. Not to mention I only saved a few bucks over my typical gas charge (typically $10-15).

[GenXPolymath]

I travel for my business all the time and by far HERTZ is the cheapest rentals if you use a LLC or C Corp TIN number. You can get a Model S Tesla for under $20 a day always under $30 a day. I routinely rent EVs in Houston,Austin, San Antonio,New Orleans, Las Vegas, Denver,LA, Seattle and San Diego.

Never once has charging been an issue not a single time in well over 25 rentals in the last few years. Not one of those cities is more than 60 miles across it you could go back and forth the entire city 6 times in a Model S and still have range left. How many times in a day has anyone on a work trip gone across a city and back once maybe six times I think not. The avg trip distance round trip for inside a city is under 30 miles the NHTSA keeps track of.those numbers 96% of all trips are under 30 miles round trip. A model S can make 15 days worth of trips at that average. Most of the time when I rent a Tesla it comes 100% capacity and I pay the “fuel fee” to bring it back at near zero charge 10% or so. Even if my hotel or airbnb doesn’t have a L2 on site in a week I’ll only put a few hundred miles on the rental going out for lunches,dinners and driving to nightlife spots a lot of times I never need a charge at all.

Most four and all five star hotels I have ever stayed at the valet service will plug your car into at least a L2 charger over night if not a supercharger. Every Harrah,Caesars property has this standard valet service with platinum or above memberships.

With a $16 dollar adapter from Amazon you can plug CCS1 50kw-250kw and 240v/80amp J1772 plugs into the Tesla port that opens every charger in North America to a Tesla. The cities are blanketed with chargers every one is open to a Tesla with a CCS/1772 adapter it was a no brainer to buy one from Amazon for less than half what I typically spend on a scotch on the rocks.

Zoom into any one of those cities you will see they are blanketed with chargers. Filter to 50kw or above and still blanketed 50kw puts 200 miles in a hour back in a Tesla slightly less as recharge slows down from 80% to 100% which I have never needed to go above 80% at a fast DC charger. Given that the next fast DC will be under 50 miles away and 80% in a Model S is 300+ miles my bladder demands a 3 hour 200 ish mile stop regardless of if the car needs it.

I have rented a Tesla in New Orleans and drove it as far as Pensacola then back to Houston and then to DFW at no point was finding a 100-250kw charger a issue or more than 100 miles in any direction down a interstate. In Texas SC are every 50 miles or less look at all the red dots on the link below those are Tesla chargers and most of them are supercharger or 240v/80/60amp designation chargers. Point is charging is a mine issue on work trips and even taking a rental on a 1800+ mile road trip proved to be easy with a Tesla and it’s onboard tech.

https://chargefinder.com/us/search

[bosco24]

“I had to bring it back with at least 70% charge— I get the car, and it only has 73% charge”

My daughter’s car was only charged 50% when she picked it up and never got it charged to 70% anytime she had it. She didn’t have to pay more when she brought it back after telling them the nightmare week she had.

Leason learned, never rent an EV.