Rental Giant Hertz Dumps EVs, Including Teslas, for Gas Cars

[Hightech88]

https://www.reuters.com/business/au...rtz-sell-about-20000-evs-us-fleet-2024-01-11/

Rental giant Hertz dumps EVs, including Teslas, for gas cars​

By Nathan Gomes and Joseph White
January 12, 20242:48 AM GMT+8Updated 21 hours ago

[1/2]Hertz car rental logo is seen in this illustration taken June 27, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights

Jan 11 (Reuters) - Rental firm Hertz Global Holdings (HTZ.O) is selling about 20,000 electric vehicles, including Teslas, from its U.S. fleet about two years after a deal with the automaker to offer its vehicles for rent, in another sign that EV demand has cooled.

Hertz will instead opt for gas-powered vehicles, it said on Thursday, citing higher expenses related to collision and damage for EVs even though it had aimed to convert 25% of its fleet to electric by 2024 end.

CEO Stephen Scherr had last year at the JPMorgan Auto Conference flagged headwinds from higher expenses for its EVs, particularly Teslas.

Hertz even limited the torque and speed on the EVs and offered it to experienced users on the platform to make them easier to adapt after certain users had front-end collisions, he said.

Shares of the company, which also operates vehicles from Swedish EV maker Polestar among others, fell about 4%. Tesla's (TSLA.O) stock was down about 3%.

Hertz also expects about $245 million in charges related to depreciation expenses from the EV sale in the fourth quarter of 2023.

BUMPY ROAD FOR EV GROWTH​

Its decision underscores the bumpy road EVs have hit as their sales growth slows, causing carmakers like General Motors (GM.N) and Ford (F.N) to scale back production plans.

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said in a note Hertz's move was another sign that EV expectations need to be "reset downward".

While consumers enjoy the driving experience and fuel savings (per mile) of an EV, Jonas said there are other "hidden costs to EV ownership".
"Expenses related to collision and damage, primarily associated with EVs, remained high in the quarter," Hertz said in a regulatory filing on Thursday.

The company, which had earlier planned to order 100,000 Tesla vehicles by 2022 end and 65,000 units from Polestar over five years, said it would focus on improving profitability for the rest of its EV fleet.

German rental car company Sixt said in December it had not purchased Tesla vehicles since 2022 and was selling its fleet of Teslas "as part of our regular de-fleeting process".

It still plans to offer a range of electrified vehicles and "stick to our goal to electrify 70-90 percent of our rental fleet in Europe by 2030", it said on Thursday.

USED-EV PRICES DROP​

Meanwhile, wholesale used-EV prices fell for most of 2023 as prices for new EVs fell and inventories of unsold electric vehicles rose, according to Cox Automotive data.
Cox forecast before Hertz's decision that used-EV prices would decline more than overall used vehicle prices in 2024.

"While 20,000 cars isn't a large number in the total used vehicle market, it does mean Hertz will be taking a major loss on each of these sales while further contributing to the trend of falling used EV values," iSeeCars.com analyst Karl Brauer said.

Hertz is selling some Tesla Model 3 for as low as about $20,000, nearly half the purchase price for the cheapest variant of the compact sedan, its used car website showed.

It lists more than 700 EVs on sale, including BMW's i3, Chevrolet's Bolt and Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y SUVs.
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[laksaboy]

Anyone who promotes the anti-carbon bullshit should be put to death. That may or may not include promoting battery-operated cars.

 

[eatshitndie]

worst drivers are ev drivers who think they can outdrive everyone. this is what happens when you make evs available to monkeys.

 

[syed putra]

The batteries deteriorates based on number of charging so those who use teslas for Uber, their batteries kaputs three time within warranty period.

 

[laksaboy]

The batteries deteriorates based on number of charging so those who use teslas for Uber, their batteries kaputs three time within warranty period.

Then you can buy more batteries, then China can huat a bit more.

I bet it was China who whispered the anti-carbon nonsense into the ears of libtards, and they foolishly ran along with it.

 

[cocobobo]

No need for EV or hydrogen. Declining populations will make the air clean again.

 

[superpower]

Electric cars involved in more accidents than regular vehicles, study shows​

Sunday, 11 September 2022

Electric cars are involved in 50% more traffic accidents than their petrol and diesel counterparts, according to a study by insurer Axa.

The high number of accidents has actually nothing to do with the technology, but everything to do with the driving behaviour of the drivers. It is mainly the fast and sharp acceleration that surprises drivers, especially those new to the cars, and leads to accidents.

We see more and more battery-powered electric cars on our motorways. Of newly registered vehicles, more than 17,000 were purely electric in the first half of this year. That is no less than 8.8 percent of new cars. With hybrids included, more than 30 percent of newly registered cars in 2022 will now be fully or partially powered by electric motors.

At the same time as the growing number of electric vehicles on the road, concerns about their safety are also increasing. Their batteries are of specific concern: if they catch fire, they are extremely difficult to extinguish. However, insurer Axa surveyed more than 1,200 owners of electric cars and looked at its accident statistics. Their findings show that the striking accident figures actually have nothing to do with the fire risk.

Axa's data shows that flammable batteries are not the big problem with electric vehicles. Electric cars do not catch fire more than cars with combustion engines on petrol or diesel.

Electric motor response faster​

The main cause of traffic accidents with electric vehicles is the inappropriate driving behaviour of the drivers. Michael Pfäffli, head of accidents and prevention at Axa, explains: "We have seen in our statistics that drivers of electric vehicles cause 50 percent more collisions than cars with internal combustion engines. Drivers of powerful electric cars in particular cause twice as many accidents as with standard cars."

Crash tests organised by Axa show how fast electric cars accelerate. The response of electric motors is incomparably faster than that of the classic combustion engines using petrol or diesel, especially with the more powerful models. An electric vehicle simply shoots out of the starting blocks much faster and more powerfully.

Driving style differs from engine to electric​

Drivers who switch from a classic car to an electric model often have too little awareness of how an electric car reacts. Before they realise it, they speed away and bang into something. Axa's figures also show that most accidents happen when accelerating, not when braking. In addition, the larger electric cars are extremely fast.
Owners often don’t dare to press the accelerator pedal. All this together leads to 50 percent more accidents than with regular cars.

Adjusting the driving style is therefore advised: take into account the much more agile acceleration of the cars, handle the accelerator with more care and keep your distance.

The misjudgement of those unexpected accelerations is therefore the main cause of accidents with electric cars, say the experts at Axa. But when they collide with similar models with fuel engines, electric cars usually come out the least damaged. Electric cars are generally a lot heavier than classic cars because they carry a lot of batteries. And it is the lightest car that suffers the most damage in a collision.

Battery fires are dangerous​

It is important to be careful if an electric car is hit from behind in a traffic accident or if, for example, it drives too abruptly over a speed bump or over a bumpy surface, where the bottom of the car rubs on the road. The batteries are located at the bottom of the car. If the bottom plate of an electric vehicle is badly hit and the protection around the batteries is also damaged, they can catch fire. And this is a serious problem.

The current lithium-ion batteries are extremely hard to extinguish. And an electric car has thousands of batteries. For the fire brigade, the only solution is often to immerse the car in a container filled with water for a number of days. There are cases where electric cars were taken out of the water tank after a few days and yet caught fire again. This is a problem that remains a challenge for the manufacturers and the emergency services.

What to do incase of an accident?​

Fire services are constantly looking for new ways to extinguish the burning cars more efficiently, but fireman Michael Derungs, who specialises in the new technology, admits that a water container remains the best solution so far: "The vehicle must be placed in a container with water. It is best to keep a battery pack submerged until it has cooled down completely. But this can take some time.”

​

 

[syed putra]

Then you can buy more batteries, then China can huat a bit more.

I bet it was China who whispered the anti-carbon nonsense into the ears of libtards, and they foolishly ran along with it.

Xi Jinping saw this coming and engaged in huge investment into new green energy. All those solar panels, wind turbines, batteries were promoted the moment he got into office. And usage of coal in heating of boilers were made illegal and rightly so as it polluted the air.