By David Shepardson
(Reuters) -Rental car company Hertz Global Holdings plans to order up to 175,000 General Motors electric vehicles over the next five years, the latest move by the rental car firm to add zero-emission models.
Hertz and GM on Tuesday announced a joint agreement in which the rental car firm will order Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac and BrightDrop EVs through 2027. Hertz expects to begin taking delivery of Chevrolet Bolt EVs and Bolt EUVs in early 2023.
GM Chief Executive Mary Barra said in a statement the automaker’s work “with Hertz is a huge step forward for emissions reduction and EV adoption that will help create thousands of new EV customers for GM.”
Hertz’s current goal is for one-quarter of its fleet to be electric by the end of 2024. In April, Hertz said it would buy up to 65,000 electric vehicles over five years from Swedish EV maker Polestar and in October 2021 Hertz announced its intent to purchase 100,000 electric cars from Tesla, primarily the EV maker’s Model 3.
The GM deal “spans a wide range of vehicle categories and price points — from compact and midsize SUVs to pickups, luxury vehicles,” the companies said.
Hertz estimated its customers could travel more than 8 billion miles in these EVs and save approximately 3.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions versus gasoline-powered vehicles.
Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr said the deal “will dramatically expand our EV offering to Hertz customers, including leisure and business travelers, rideshare drivers and corporates.”
Barra said she believes “each rental experience will further increase purchase consideration for our products and drive growth for our company.”
(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
