Hertz has introduced that it is going to be buying up to 65,000 electrical automobiles (EVs) from Swedish carmaker Polestar over the next five years because it steps up its transfer into electrification. The American automotive rental firm mentioned Polestar automobiles will begin being accessible in its fleet from spring in Europe, and later this yr in North America and Australia.
Hertz mentioned that it might initially order the Polestar 2 sedan. It mentioned the partnership with Polestar builds on its announcement made final October to supply its prospects the most important EV rental fleet in US and one of many largest on the earth.
Back in October, Hertz mentioned it was ordering 100,000 EVs from Tesla, primarily made up of the carmaker’s Model 3. Last month, it added the Model Y SUV to its EV fleet. The firm mentioned that as well as to making the EV fleet accessible to its enterprise and leisure prospects, it’ll lengthen its choices to ride-share drivers as a manner to additional speed up electrification.
“The partnership with a global pioneer like Hertz will bring the amazing experience of driving an electric car to a wider audience, satisfying a broad variety of our mutual customers’ short- and longer-term mobility requirements,” Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath mentioned by way of an announcement.
For Hertz, it appears prefer it’s properly on the highway to restoration. The agency filed for Chapter 11 in May 2020 on account of the Covid-19 pandemic, however emerged from chapter in June final yr, stating it had completed in order a a lot stronger firm. The transfer to bolster its fleet with EVs comes on the again of shifting client choice in the direction of EVs, with 40% of US shoppers having mentioned they had been extra possible to think about them.
