Hertz CEO Steps down following 100,000 Tesla Purchase fiasco

Not too long ago we had just reported on how Hertz was selling its EVs, and now Hertz CEO, Stephen Scherr who ran the company for just over two years has stepped down following his disastrous bet on Teslas. 

The CEO was one of the few leaders making big bets on EVs to support their rental car business and the proverbial EVs have come home to roost. 

He had joined just after Hertz emerged from bankruptcy and his initial plan to switch the fleet from ICE vehicles to EVs was met with praise, causing its market cap to rise above USD1 trillion. 

Now as the EV market is facing steep competition, Tesla has begun slashing prices for their vehicles of late and in turn, it has caused the resale value of Teslas in Hertz’ fleet to plummet.

Hertz started selling off 20,000 EVs in December of last year and announced more sales of its EV fleet as consumers did not want to rent EVs. 

That resulted in a $245 million charge for Hertz and its largest quarterly loss since the pandemic. Other rental car firms have also recently ditched EVs, with Germany’s Sixt doing away with its entire fleet

Scherr also cited costly depreciation and expensive repairs as the reason for letting go of the EVs. We’ve profiled the cost of replacing batteries in EVs and they do not come cheap. Some cost as much as the car.

To date, the company has sold one third of its EVs in its global fleet. 

There’s no word if the incumbent CEO’s appetite for EVs but we’re going to assume that he’s not going to touch it with a ten-foot pole.