NSIAP

You hate to see it, but more than that, you love to see it.

https://fortune.com/2024/03/15/ceo-steps-down-prices-following-purchase-teslas/

Quote:

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Hertz Global Holdings Inc. is replacing its chief executive officer in the wake of a disastrous bet on electric vehicles that the company began unwinding in recent months.

Stephen Scherr, who ran Hertz for just over two years after three decades at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., has decided to step down, the rental-car company said late Friday in a statement. It's replacing him with Gil West, the former chief operating officer of General Motors Co.'s Cruise robotaxi unit. West also will join the board of directors on April 1, according to the statement, which confirmed an earlier Bloomberg report.

Related Video
Scherr, 59, joined Hertz several months after it emerged from bankruptcy and started making splashy wagers on electric vehicles. Under new owners Knighthead Capital Management and Certares Management, the rental company announced plans to order 100,000 vehicles from Tesla Inc., sending the automaker's market capitalization soaring past the $1 trillion mark at the time.

Read more: Hertz's electric vehicle and CEO about-face is the latest twist after a COVID bankruptcy filing and a deep relationship with Carl Icahn

Hertz doubled down on EVs in the months after Scherr took over, placing big orders with Polestar, the electric-car maker owned by China's Geely and Sweden's Volvo Car, and GM. The company ended up buying a small number of cars from the two companies, a spokesperson said.

Those bets went awry last year, when Tesla slashed prices across its lineup to keep growing vehicle sales. This hammered the resale value of used Model 3 sedans and Model Y crossovers just after Hertz had added tens of thousands of those vehicles to its fleet.

By December, Hertz started selling off 20,000 electric vehicles, or about a third of its EV fleet. Germany's Sixt SE a leading car-renter in Europe is taking even more drastic measures, phasing Teslas out of its fleet entirely.

Hertz announced its EV sell-down plans in January, citing lackluster demand, costly depreciation and expensive repairs. The Estero, Florida-based company took a $245 million charge and reported its biggest quarterly loss since the pandemic.

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I looked at their used car sites and they have a ton of EV Chevy Volts for sale. No wonder they had no success with EV those cars are turds and no way would I want to drive one even for a few days rental.

I know probably a half-dozen people ambivalent about EVs who now hate them after having one thrust upon them by Hertz when they reserved an IC vehicle.

Why does their website suck so bad!!! For all this investment, that should have been change 1.

Emotional Support Cobra said:

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Why does their website suck so bad!!! For all this investment, that should have been change 1.

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Looks like they blew all the website budget on Tom Brady.

bonfarr said:

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I looked at their used car sites and they have a ton of EV Chevy Volts for sale. No wonder they had no success with EV those cars are turds and no way would I want to drive one even for a few days rental.

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You mean that critically acclaimed Superbowl commercial in 2011 with Eminem didn't result in a lot of Chevy Volt sales?

Color me shocked.

They were kickass when OJ was running through the airports and using seating as hurdles.

Thunderstruck xx said:

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NSIAP

You hate to see it, but more than that, you love to see it.

https://fortune.com/2024/03/15/ceo-steps-down-prices-following-purchase-teslas/

Quote:

---

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. is replacing its chief executive officer in the wake of a disastrous bet on electric vehicles that the company began unwinding in recent months.

Stephen Scherr, who ran Hertz for just over two years after three decades at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., has decided to step down, the rental-car company said late Friday in a statement. It's replacing him with Gil West, the former chief operating officer of General Motors Co.'s Cruise robotaxi unit. West also will join the board of directors on April 1, according to the statement, which confirmed an earlier Bloomberg report.

Related Video
Scherr, 59, joined Hertz several months after it emerged from bankruptcy and started making splashy wagers on electric vehicles. Under new owners Knighthead Capital Management and Certares Management, the rental company announced plans to order 100,000 vehicles from Tesla Inc., sending the automaker's market capitalization soaring past the $1 trillion mark at the time.

Read more: Hertz's electric vehicle and CEO about-face is the latest twist after a COVID bankruptcy filing and a deep relationship with Carl Icahn

Hertz doubled down on EVs in the months after Scherr took over, placing big orders with Polestar, the electric-car maker owned by China's Geely and Sweden's Volvo Car, and GM. The company ended up buying a small number of cars from the two companies, a spokesperson said.

Those bets went awry last year, when Tesla slashed prices across its lineup to keep growing vehicle sales. This hammered the resale value of used Model 3 sedans and Model Y crossovers just after Hertz had added tens of thousands of those vehicles to its fleet.

By December, Hertz started selling off 20,000 electric vehicles, or about a third of its EV fleet. Germany's Sixt SE a leading car-renter in Europe is taking even more drastic measures, phasing Teslas out of its fleet entirely.

Hertz announced its EV sell-down plans in January, citing lackluster demand, costly depreciation and expensive repairs. The Estero, Florida-based company took a $245 million charge and reported its biggest quarterly loss since the pandemic.

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This sounds like a classic serving of Hertz Donut.

EVs are most convenient when you can charge them at home. Rental cars are often used by people who are traveling.

You can't succeed in business if you're focusing on the wrong target audience.

bonfarr said:

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I looked at their used car sites and they have a ton of EV Chevy Volts for sale. No wonder they had no success with EV those cars are turds and no way would I want to drive one even for a few days rental.

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I assume you mean Chevy BOLT? Wasn't the Volt a range extending hybrid?

BonfireNerd04 said:

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EVs are most convenient when you can charge them at home. Rental cars are often used by people who are traveling.

You can't succeed in business if you're focusing on the wrong target audience.

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More like fun toys to go fast, ignoring the politics/trade/environmental impact of their production/adoption.

The John F Kerry (who by the way served in Vietnam) Betamax fad of the 2020's, basically (Though, the analogy breaks down where beta was better than VHS). Not just Hertz, but Ford/manufacturers are backtracking as fast (and quietly) as possible on their EV commitments/insanity.

Lol, a couple years ago I reserved a car to drive from Nashville to Atlanta for business. Over the Appalachian Mountains. Avis gave me an electric car in the express section where you walk to the car and drive out without the hassle of waiting in line at the counter.

One one hand, it was interesting. I had never driven an e-car. On the other hand, a 250 mile trip at steep grade, with no knowledge of charging station locations, combined with no interest in a long re-charging delay, just didn't seem like the right choice. So I went thru the hassle of going back to the counter and exchanging for an ICE.

Didn't take long on my trip to consider it a good trade. I like to get to where I'm going without delay, and I would often step on it to get around the big trucks and slow cars when openings allowed. That ICE got a good workout on that day. Very glad that wasn't my first experiment with an e-car.

In a big or semi-big city, I can see the convenience of not having to stop for gas. But I'm in rural areas a lot, carry/tow heavy loads at times, and need the reliability and refueling convenience of good ole gasoline (or diesel).

BonfireNerd04 said:

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EVs are most convenient when you can charge them at home. Rental cars are often used by people who are traveling.

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If Hertz let you return an EV on low charge without penalty, I would find that a big plus for business trips where I'm just driving around town. It would be great to skip the minor inconvenience of topping off the gas before heading to the rental car return. But no, you're stuck with the major inconvenience of finding a way to fully charge the SOB.

Owning an EV is throwing away money, in many ways, vs. other options.

The potential depreciation on EVs has always been the technology’s weak point. Internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles hold their value much better. This could well be inherent in the technology. 🚗 https://t.co/uRKBCHqYCn pic.twitter.com/Xy6luJqOi6

— Philip Pilkington (@philippilk) March 17, 2024

EV owners keep getting slapped in the face with reality. The true believers don't care, though.

All evs are dog****


The plebes have finally figured it out


Only establishment pimps keep pushing idiotic ev nonsense

TriAg2010 said:

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BonfireNerd04 said:

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EVs are most convenient when you can charge them at home. Rental cars are often used by people who are traveling.

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If Hertz let you return an EV on low charge without penalty, I would find that a big plus for business trips where I'm just driving around town. It would be great to skip the minor inconvenience of topping off the gas before heading to the rental car return. But no, you're stuck with the major inconvenience of finding a way to fully charge the SOB.

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I rented one once because I wanted to see what it was all about. I was just having some work done on my car, so I wasn't leaving town. What a disaster. First I had to wait because the thing wasn't charged. They give you the ability to bring it back as low as 80% with no additional fee, but they gave it to me at 60%. Then I was told by an employee that any minor scratch or fingerprint would result in a charge by the manager. He said she only did that on the teslas. I took tons of pictures and made the manager come outside and take more pictures and document it all. Even taking it back I had to remind them that it wasn't given to me fully charged because they tried to add that to my bill.

Car was fun to drive because it was fast AF, but it was a giant hassle compared to normal car rentals.

The only good thing about those rentals were the instances of turning off potential new buyers like you. Hertz probably set back the EV revolution a couple years all by themselves.

Thinking of all the crap I have to deal with when traveling and renting a car (crowds, jet lagged, navigating a new town) makes renting an unfamiliar EV sound like a very bad idea. Where do I charge it? With the lack of a gear shift, where must I swipe to get it to move forward?

Salute the EV

torrid said:

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Thinking of all the crap I have to deal with when traveling and renting a car (crowds, jet lagged, navigating a new town) makes renting an unfamiliar EV sound like a very bad idea. Where do I charge it? With the lack of a gear shift, where must I swipe to get it to move forward?

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What? There is no gear shift? Elon put a neuralink in the brain to tell the car to go forward or in reverse?

We've owned a '14 Volt since '16. Didn't buy it to save the world, bought it cuz it made sense at the time. Still does. Great vehicle. One of the best I've owned.

TriAg2010 said:

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I know probably a half-dozen people ambivalent about EVs who now hate them after having one thrust upon them by Hertz when they reserved an IC vehicle.

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Hertz has become well known for causing their customers to be arrested for car theft. Why would anyone rent from them?

I love my Tesla, best car hands down in almost everything important to me.

But I would not rent an EV. It was a bad idea doomed to fail.

nortex97 said:

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Owning an EV is throwing away money, in many ways, vs. other options.

The potential depreciation on EVs has always been the technology’s weak point. Internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles hold their value much better. This could well be inherent in the technology. 🚗 https://t.co/uRKBCHqYCn pic.twitter.com/Xy6luJqOi6

— Philip Pilkington (@philippilk) March 17, 2024

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Still not discounted enough for me to buy it

My last experience with Hertz was bad. I reserved a certain class of vehicle.

When I arrived "oh we don't have that class, you will have to rent a higher class at a higher rate".

The entire workforce was DEI cocktail. Argumentative, unprofessional, etc..

I won't rent from them again unless forced to do so.

IMHO there isn't a 'decent' car rental outfit right now. Avis/Budget I absolutely can't stand after my most recent experiences, and I've used them predominantly for 20 years. I've heard good things about 'silver car' or whatever the Audi spin off is but they aren't really everywhere. I've never used some of the others like Dollar, so maybe I am just not well informed.

bobbranco said:

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They were kickass when OJ was running through the airports and using seating as hurdles.

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Old joke:

If OJ was found to be guilty, will "Hertz" have to change their name to "Killz"?

Awesome. Tim Brady make a gajillion bucks off them on a failed EV marketing campaign and now the CEO is fired due to no one falling for the EV scam.

After seeing those cringe Brady commercials, I wouldn't rent a Hertz ICE vehicle.

The marketing was Bud Light trans-level stupid. There's something subconscious going on with those commercials. Our brains know that a football superhero acting like a 12 year old girl because of force-fed technology is a heavy-handed ESG trick, and our brains reject it.

We're slowly starting to consider replacing my wife's car and the Tesla Model Y is on the list. The one thing we don't consider when shopping is eventual resale value. We drive cars for about 10 years or 150k+ miles. My ceiling is about 200k but I haven't ever gotten there. At that kind of lifespan there's no real difference in what an ICE car or a Tesla is gonna sell for. Her 2015 Cadillac SRX has 160k miles and is worth about $5k on trade. If we'd bought a Tesla back then what would it be worth? Probably $4k. So what? Depreciation only matters if you don't keep them long enough.

Having said that the Tesla is the only car on the list that's an EV. Nobody else has figured out how to do it profitably and I don't care to be the guy driving a car the manufacturer doesn't know or care how to work on because they've abandoned that side of their business. Right now I think the odds are higher that Tesla is the only full EV on the market in 10 years than it is we'll have converted substantially all of the U.S. consumer fleet to them.

The used EV market is a problem because call the manufacturers designed them to be a single disposal unit that is difficult to repair, and designed them to look like conventional cars instead of utilizing the advantages that electric might provide for certain less conventional but more utilitarian layouts, or at least optimizing for that technology.

The groups of people adopting EV early have very little overlap with the groups of people that buy used cars. That second group has no experience with them, doesn't know what to expect on longevity and costs, and are concerned they can't do a lot of their own repairs and maintenance at home.

They are rightly concerned the first owner drove off all the good new miles, and the next owner will get stuck with a huge repair bill when some thing critical does fail, because these vehicles were designed to be disposable or really as efficient and as easy to assemble as a unit as possible such that it inhibits future major repair.

LOYAL AG said:

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We're slowly starting to consider replacing my wife's car and the Tesla Model Y is on the list. The one thing we don't consider when shopping is eventual resale value. We drive cars for about 10 years or 150k+ miles. My ceiling is about 200k but I haven't ever gotten there. At that kind of lifespan there's no real difference in what an ICE car or a Tesla is gonna sell for. Her 2015 Cadillac SRX has 160k miles and is worth about $5k on trade. If we'd bought a Tesla back then what would it be worth? Probably $4k. So what? Depreciation only matters if you don't keep them long enough.

Having said that the Tesla is the only car on the list that's an EV. Nobody else has figured out how to do it profitably and I don't care to be the guy driving a car the manufacturer doesn't know or care how to work on because they've abandoned that side of their business. Right now I think the odds are higher that Tesla is the only full EV on the market in 10 years than it is we'll have converted substantially all of the U.S. consumer fleet to them.

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Still an issue, as a 10 year old EV will probably require a new $25K (2025 dollar) battery (by then probably closer to $35K) in order to be functionally/operationally comparable to a 10 year old ICE vehicle. So, if with the battery it might be worth 15K or with just the old one and a dash light/warning to replace then you have to factor in it might be worth less than half an ICE vehicle analog. And you might have to replace it sooner, anyway, and then hang on to the car past 10 or 12 years to get that money back. You also have to modify your home to accommodate charging it. That's something the other options don't make people do.

The other things are the personal safety (in event of a fire they go way out of control for a long time), environmental impacts (including disposal of the batteries), and trade/human impacts of EV's. I think informed consumers buying them really are either (a) making a political statement, or (b) disregarding their fellow man/citizen. I sincerely don't think I am the only one who see's the drivers as such.

nortex97 said:

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LOYAL AG said:

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We're slowly starting to consider replacing my wife's car and the Tesla Model Y is on the list. The one thing we don't consider when shopping is eventual resale value. We drive cars for about 10 years or 150k+ miles. My ceiling is about 200k but I haven't ever gotten there. At that kind of lifespan there's no real difference in what an ICE car or a Tesla is gonna sell for. Her 2015 Cadillac SRX has 160k miles and is worth about $5k on trade. If we'd bought a Tesla back then what would it be worth? Probably $4k. So what? Depreciation only matters if you don't keep them long enough.

Having said that the Tesla is the only car on the list that's an EV. Nobody else has figured out how to do it profitably and I don't care to be the guy driving a car the manufacturer doesn't know or care how to work on because they've abandoned that side of their business. Right now I think the odds are higher that Tesla is the only full EV on the market in 10 years than it is we'll have converted substantially all of the U.S. consumer fleet to them.

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Still an issue, as a 10 year old EV will probably require a new $25K (2025 dollar) battery (by then probably closer to $35K) in order to be functionally/operationally comparable to a 10 year old ICE vehicle. So, if with the battery it might be worth 15K or with just the old one and a dash light/warning to replace then you have to factor in it might be worth less than half an ICE vehicle analog. And you might have to replace it sooner, anyway, and then hang on to the car past 10 or 12 years to get that money back. You also have to modify your home to accommodate charging it. That's something the other options don't make people do.

The other things are the personal safety (in event of a fire they go way out of control for a long time), environmental impacts (including disposal of the batteries), and trade/human impacts of EV's. I think informed consumers buying them really are either (a) making a political statement, or (b) disregarding their fellow man/citizen. I sincerely don't think I am the only one who see's the drivers as such.

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So a 10 year old Tesla is worth $0 because it might need a new battery and a 10 year old ICE might need a new transmission. At sub$5k trade it's not enough for me to care.

Total operating costs are significantly lower in an EV. It's about $10 to fully charge a Model Y at home to get 250 miles. And you're doing it at home. Or your wife is doing it at home instead of at a gas station. There are countless stories of people never having to change their brakes because they don't use them. And there's no transmission so you won't need that $5000 repair at any point in the vehicle life. Is it perfect? No. But it's not a trash vehicle that's obviously inferior to its ICE counterpart.

I don't care what you think of me. I gave that up when I became an adult. We're both typing on cell phones using minerals from the same slave labor mines as the EV batteries. Is it good? No. But let's not pretend we actually care because we don't.

While I probably would not buy a new EV - there is no way I buy a 4 year old one. I am happy to buy a well-kept ICE vehicle that has 60k miles on it and drive it for another 100k.

JB93 said:

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While I probably would not buy a new EV - there is no way I buy a 4 year old one. I am happy to buy a well-kept ICE vehicle that has 60k miles on it and drive it for another 100k.

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Yep. I'd NEVER buy a used EV. And the only EV I'd buy, right now, is a Tesla. Brand new.

As for ICE, I bought a used 2010 Imp-HOLLA!!! with 200k on it. Zero worries. Changed starter and brakes, fill it with oil every so often, and go.