Hertz has surprised many industry observers with solid fourth-quarter earnings but it has less than half of the Teslas in its fleet than it planned to.
The rental car giant reported $2.035 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter while for the full year, it reported revenue of $8.7 billion. Hertz ended 2022 with $2.5 billion of total liquidity available, including $943 million in cash.
Speaking with CNBC, Hertz chief executive Stephen Scherr acknowledged that a travel industry on the rebound contributed to what was a successful year for the company. He noted that corporate travelers were up in 31 per cent compared to 2021 and that demand from international travelers jumped by 88 per cent.
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A regulatory filing issued by Hertz added that it ended the year with 428,700 vehicles in its U.S. fleet. Of that fleet, 11 per cent were Tesla models, meaning there are roughly 48,344 Teslas on Hertz’s current U.S. fleet. This is less than half of the 100,000 EVs from Tesla that it said it would purchase by the end of 2022, Reuters reports. It is unclear why Hertz added fewer Tesla models to its rental fleet in 2022 than it had originally announced.
Hertz first revealed in October 2021 that it would add 100,000 Tesla Model 3s to its fleet by the end of 2022 at a total cost of $4.2 billion. The announcement of this move came just four months after the company exited bankruptcy under new ownership. Customers who rent a Model 3 through Hertz have access to the Tesla Supercharger Network.
