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Written by Steven Loveday, Inside EVs
Hertz CEO talks Tesla Deal, where Hertz wants to lead the electric vehicle adoption and despite Tesla CEO Elon Musk‘s words and media reports, is actually a deal and is happening as part of major efforts to rebuild Hertz.
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Hertz Interim CEO Mark Fields—formerly CEO at Ford—recently talked about the future with Yahoo! Finance.
Not only is Fields thrilled about what’s in store for the future with Hertz in general, as well as its relationship with Tesla, but also he’s ready to take the reins and be the new leader in promoting EV adoption. If people rent a Tesla, there’s a very good chance they’ll want to buy one, and even if they can’t afford a Tesla, many will be looking at an electric car down the road.
While current Ford CEO Jim Farley is getting loads of credit these days for the automaker’s EV push, Yahoo! says Fields is responsible for “planting the seeds” for Ford’s transition to electric cars.
“We are excited about the Tesla relationship,” Fields said on Yahoo! Finance Live. “It’s all wrapped around our strategy to lead the adoption of electric vehicles.”
For background, Hertz announced it ordered 100,000 Tesla Model 3 sedans for its fleet, and it expected to see them all delivered prior to the end of 2022. In addition, 50,000 of those cars, or perhaps even additional Teslas, will be made available to Uber drivers in the future.
After Tesla’s stock surged on the news, Musk took to Twitter and explained there was no official contract signed and Hertz is paying full price for the cars. The statement makes some people assume Hertz just ordered the cars on Tesla’s website as any person can do. The website shows delivery times stretching into late 2022, so Hertz was fair in saying it expected the cars to be delivered by then.
Fields made it clear once again everything is set with Tesla, and the 100,000 cars have already been ordered.
“So we are starting a great relationship with Tesla,” Fields said. “We are also ready to partner with many other manufacturers to extend our lead in the adoptions of electric vehicles. But clearly we are going to work I think very collaboratively with Tesla.
“Importantly, our consumers really want to drive Teslas and we want to be there to be able to provide those products for them. We are very excited about the relationship going forward.”
In the meantime, after working to come out of bankruptcy, Hertz launched its “re-IPO” this week. The company raised $1.3 billion in an offering Nov. 8.
We thank Inside EVs for reprint permission.
Article Credit to AutoBodyNews.
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