The car rental company Hertz and the electric car manufacturer Polestar have entered into a global cooperation. Hertz will purchase up to 65,000 Polestar electric cars over a five-year period.
In Europe, the first vehicles are expected to be delivered in spring 2022, in North America as well as Australia at the end of 2022, according to Polestar. The financial scope of the agreement is not precisely quantified by the manufacturer.
At this point in time, this is probably also difficult to do: it is only a general matter of 65,000 Polestar-branded vehicles, not specific models. At present, the Swedish Geely brand has the Polestar 2, a mid-size electric sedan, in its programme; the Polestar 3, Polestar 4 and Polestar 5 models will follow in the coming years. Since the exact distribution of the 65,000 vehicles among the model series and also the prices for the coming models have not yet been determined, it is difficult to quantify the exact volume at present. The only thing that is clear is that Hertz will order the Polestar 2 “first”.
Instead, it says rather generally that the partnership is part of Hertz’s ongoing commitment to “lead in electrification, shared mobility and a digital-first customer experience”. Hertz had ordered 100,000 electric cars from Tesla in October 2021.
Similar to the Tesla deal, where up to 50,000 Model 3s will be made available to Uber drivers, the rental company will also expand Polestar’s “offering to ridesharing services”, according to the Swedes. However, specific ride-sharing services or the share of the 65,000 vehicles are not mentioned.
“Today’s partnership with Polestar further builds on our ambition to become a leading participant in the modern mobility ecosystem and doing so as an environmentally-forward company,” said Stephen Scherr, CEO of Hertz. “By working with EV industry leaders like Polestar, we can help accelerate the adoption of electrification while providing renters, corporate customers and rideshare partners a premium EV product, exceptional experience and lower carbon footprint.”
Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath added: “We are delighted that Hertz has chosen Polestar as a strategic partner on their road to 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. For many of them it may be the first time they have driven an EV, and it will be a Polestar.”
Keyword: Hertz to buy 65,000 BEVs from Polestar