Rental firm Hertz Global Holdings (HTZ.O) said on Thursday it would sell about 20,000 electric vehicles, including Teslas, from its U.S. fleet due to higher expenses related to collision and damage, and will opt for gas-powered vehicles.
Shares of the company, which also operates vehicles from Swedish EV maker Polestar among others, fell about 4%. Teslaâs (TSLA.O) stock was down about 3%.
Hertz also expects to book an about $245 million charge related to depreciation expenses from the proposed EV sale in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Hertzâs decision underscores the bumpy road EVs have hit as the growth rate on sales of those vehicles has slowed, causing carmakers like General Motors (GM.N) and Ford (F.N) to scale back production plans of those vehicles.
Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas in a note said the car rental firmâs move was a warning across the EV space and it was another sign that EV expectations need to be âreset downward across the market.â
âWhile consumers enjoy the driving experience and fuel savings (per mile) of an EV, there are other âhiddenâ costs to EV ownership,â Jonas added.
They almost exclusively bought Teslas and Polestars and are now complaining about maintenance costs? I remember a few years ago, the first time Tesla wasnât on the very bottom of the JD Powers Initial Build Quality list the editors put up a special note that it wasnât because Tesla had gotten better, only because Polestar was even worse.
Seems like Hertzâs main problem is common sense.
Iâd really like to rent a Hyundai Ionic 5 for a road trip next summer but I canât find anyone local that rents any electrics other than Teslas.
Ehhh, EVs, and modern cars in general, have a bit of a bad habit of adding a bunch of technology that makes what used to be pretty cheap repairs way more costly.
It used to be if you had a fender bender that tore apart your bumper, you were able to replace the bumper for pretty cheap, like maybe $100 just for the part, couple hundred for labor, because itâs just a big piece of molded plastic.
Now, the bumpers often house tons of sensors, often up to and including rear-view cameras. Now to replace your bumper and all the sensors, the bill is $5k.
Some of thatâs not even that modern. I got in a small accident in my 2007 Prius and they had to replace the entire front of the body. The bumper, grill, and front quarter panels are all shipped as a single piece.
I think you might have gotten taken advantage of as Iâm pretty sure the front quarter panel is not attached to the front bumper and can be replaced individually.
The grill Iâm not sure about but Iâm pretty sure Iâve disconnected the bumper from the front quarter panel on my 2007.
Really informative video. Thank you.
I am kind of happy that I cheaped out on my car when I bought it. The only real issues I have had were that the speakers bugged out so that one side sounded like faulty wiring inside a tin can, and the Bluetooth connection made it impossible to make or take calls while driving as it blasted the caller or recipient with aggressive loud static. None of these really needed fixing, music is nice but not a must have and I could blame the car when I didnât want to talk to people when I was driving or running errands. The new owner hasnât seemed to notice or has no complaintsâŚ
Funnily enough, I thought Iâd have to sell the POS at a loss, but I got money back that covered my car loan and afforded me an e-bike at least.
Tried with an EV car from a car pool for a while as well, but the e-bike was so much better.
Even the Ioniq 5 is susceptible to this issue. A few people have hit road debris which dented the case around the cells and they were quoted $60,000 (CAD) to replace the entire battery so insurance totalled both cars out.
Iâve been eyeing this thing to buy since it was released but now Iâm second guessing that after hearing this. I assume itâs due to Hyundai not having a large enough supply of battery packs in order to have a robust supply of replacement parts, so hopefully they can reduce that price by an order of magnitude once they do.
Jd Powers initial build quality you say?
