Hertz is buying up to 175,000 electric vehicles from GM

By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN Business

Hertz has agreed to purchase up to 175,000 electric vehicles from General Motors over the next five years. This follows earlier announcements that Hertz would buy 100,000 electric cars from Tesla and another 65,000 from the Volvo spin-off brand Polestar.

Hertz plans to purchase vehicles from all four of GM’s North American passenger vehicle brands — Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac. The purchases will include a variety of vehicle types and classes such as small and mid-size SUVs, cars, and pickup trucks. Most of these models are not yet in production, but GM has recently started production of the Cadillac Lyriq electric SUV and the GMC Hummer EV electric truck. Three new electric Chevrolet models have also been unveiled this year: The Chevrolet Silverado pickup, Blazer EV SUV and Equinox EV SUV are expected to go on sale next year.

Hertz may also bring GM’s Brightdrop delivery vans into its rental fleet.

Hertz will take delivery of the first GM electric vehicles — Chevrolet Bolt EV and EUV hatchbacks and crossovers — early next year. After that, GM’s electric vehicle deliveries to Hertz will increase as the automaker’s production of electric vehicles ramps up. GM expects to be able to produce as many as a million electric vehicles annually in North America by 2025.

Hertz Global Holdings operates the Dollar and Thrifty rental car brands as well as Hertz. These GM vehicles will be going only into the Hertz rental fleet in North America. A Hertz spokesperson declined to say how large the North American Hertz rental fleet currently is. There are 500 Hertz rental locations spread across 38 US states, the company said.

GM has said it plans to sell only zero-emission vehicles, which could include hydrogen-powered vehicles as well as battery-powered vehicles, by 2035.

Hertz, meanwhile, is planning for a quarter of its total rental fleet to be electric by 2024.

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