Hertz, donut?

While the company believed it could get out ahead of the competition, the reality was that it was digging its own grave. Bloomberg goes into great detail about how an out-of-touch executive class was utterly convinced that they were ushering in an entirely new way of renting an automobile. Management was positive Certares could solve Hertz software and cloud issues while likewise integrating the many travel agencies it owned into novel money making ventures. Leadership simultaneously touted a keyless future where customers could simply use their phone to locate, unlock, and then drive rental vehicles away. Hertz was even renting EVs to Uber drivers as part of a new partnership program.

There was a lot going on at the time.

But the above ignores the fundamental problems the company was already facing and didn’t make all-electric vehicles any easier for people on vacation to use. The fact of the matter is that not all trips or parts of the country actually work with EVs. Whether on business or pleasure, absolutely nobody wants to take time out of their itinerary to charge an electric car. However, they’re effectively forced to when they’re renting since they cannot charge at home.

It turned out that just getting the EVs into the right regions was a tall order for the company. Many places saw extremely low demand for Tesla and Polestar vehicles, with customers refusing to take them since they didn’t want to go out of their way to charge them. But the places where they became popular likewise became problematic, as customers would often return them low on battery power. Locations often did not have enough charging stations present to ensure the vehicles would be ready for the following day — enraging the limited number of renters who actually wanted an EV.

Tesla rentals were also involved in more accidents (per capita) because those new to all-electric vehicles weren’t familiar with how they operated. Peppy cars that the company originally thought saved them on long-term maintenance (e.g. oil changes) ended up costing more because the repairs were so much more costly and common.