Hertz Rental Cars jumped the shark on EVs, going all in on fleet expansion, complete with ads featuring Tom Brady to promote the product. Not long after, Hertz discovered – you’d think they’d have done due diligence in advance – that EVs cost more, more to maintain, and are … unreliable. We knew this.
They could have asked, or they could have read a few articles on the subject from troubled businesses and nation-states around the world.
They cost more to buy, a lot more to insure, are expensive to repair, and, in many cases, are a total loss from what might otherwise be a minor accident. You can’t trust them indoors (or shouldn’t due to lithium battery fire risk). Their advertised range rarely meets expectations. Most EVs will never run on non-fossil fuel electricity, and their manufacture and disposal are less than green.
In the end, reliability and cost were their undoing. Hertz announced it would not buy another 100,000 and instead settled on a massive EV fleet reduction – followed just two months later by parting ways with its soon-to-be-former CEO.
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 led Hertz for just over two years after spending nearly three decades at Goldman Sachs.
Scherr’s resignation comes as the car rental company struggles with the higher repair costs and low demand for EV rentals.
Scherr’s departure also follows the company’s biggest reported loss since 2020. We know why they lost money in 2020—someone unplugged the world and wouldn’t plug it back in. This time, the damage is self-inflicted. It is a rental cart before the horse situation or, if you prefer, a massive virtue signal gone sideways. Look at us. We are embracing the transportation future without any support infrastructure.
Let’s Go!
No one wanted to, even after Tom Terrific said he liked to do that (it was just a commercial). And I’m not sure if Mr. Brady even owns one of those EV lawn ornaments—he might. It makes you wonder if, back in the day, soon-to-be former CEO Scherr was in the Boy Scouts and fell victim to the snipe-hunting gag. And not just him, but the whole board, because this EV disaster didn’t happen without their buy-in.
Brady cashed the check and walked away. Hertz will be paying for this mistake for a while.
