Hertz announces the purchase of 65,000 Polestar 2
Hertz takes a step closer to achieving its goal of electrifying its entire fleet on a global scale. As part of a partnership with Swedish automaker Polestar, the Florida-based rental company announced plans Monday to purchase 65,000 cars Polestar 2 over a period of five years.
The vehicles should be available this spring on the European market while customers in North America and Australia will have to wait until the fall before they can make reservations.
“Today’s partnership with Polestar is part of our ambition to become a major player in the modern mobility ecosystem and to do so as an environmentally conscious company,” said Stephen Scherr, CEO of Hertz in a statement.
By working with EV industry leaders like Polestar, we can help accelerate the adoption of electrification while providing individuals, corporate customers and ridesharing partners with premium electric vehicles, an exceptional experience and a reduced carbon footprint. ยป
100,000 Tesla
This is the second massive electric vehicle purchase announcement for Hertz in less than six months. Last October, the company declared its intention to acquire 100,000 Tesla-branded vehicles in order “to offer its customers the largest rental fleet of electric vehicles in North America and one of the largest in the world. world “. Hertz then estimated that Model 3s, delivered over a 14-month period, would make up more than a fifth of its rental fleet in the United States. At the end of March, the company added Model Y in its vehicle offering.
This news had propelled the market value of the action of the American manufacturer beyond 1,000 billion US dollars. It came just months after Hertz emerged from bankruptcy. In addition to helping the company get rid of debt in excess of $5 billion, the bankruptcy gave it access to nearly $10 billion in loans, lines of credit and other borrowings.
The new owners of Hertz, Knighthead Capital Management and Certares Management, who injected a capital of 5.9 billion dollars had then announced their “intention to shake up an industry dominated by a handful of big players who are generally slow to change”.
Objective: 290,000 vehicles annually
Polestar’s increased production rate may have worked in its favor in this transaction. For the year 2021, the manufacturer claims to have almost tripled its production volume and plans to double it again for the current year. Polestar expects to be able to manufacture 290,000 vehicles annually by the end of 2025.
Founded by Volvo Cars and Geely Holding in 2017 as a dedicated entity to manufacture premium electric vehicles, the company enjoys “specific Volvo technology and engineering synergies and can therefore benefit from major economies of scale”.
