Rental giant Hertz dumps EVs, including Teslas, for gas cars
Rental firm Hertz Global Holdings (HTZ.O) said on Thursday it would sell about 20,000 electric vehicles, including Teslas, from its U.S. fleet due to higher expenses related to collision and damage, and will opt for gas-powered vehicles.
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 to book an about $245 million charge related to depreciation expenses from the proposed EV sale in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Hertz's decision underscores the bumpy road EVs have hit as the growth rate on sales of those vehicles has slowed, causing carmakers like General Motors (GM.N) and Ford (F.N) to scale back production plans of those vehicles.
Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas in a note said the car rental firm's move was a warning across the EV space and it was another sign that EV expectations need to be "reset downward across the market."
"While consumers enjoy the driving experience and fuel savings (per mile) of an EV, there are other 'hidden' costs to EV ownership," Jonas added.
The main hidden cost is that regular ass people aren't going to be able to afford one for another twenty years or more.
I'm in my forties, and I'm still driving a car from 1999.
I have never owned a new car, all my vehicles have been used, and I've bought them in cash, outright, no car payment.
The prices will never come down on a used EV enough for me to justify the purchase, especially since I can find cars from 20 years ago that don't have excess features that will cost me more money to repair. Like a bunch of rear-view cameras and sensors, often placed inside the bumper, make a small fender bender into a costly repair bill because it's no longer just a bumper, it's a bumper with all kinds of expensive shit inside of it.
You can't find an EV with roll-down windows, no extras, and just a radio. They don't fucking make 'em. EV's were just the first step of the auto industry fully embracing that all vehicles are luxury, and economy cars just don't exist anymore.
Add to all this that charging networks haven't exactly rolled out nationwide and you're left with feeling stuck with ICE cars longer than you'd like.
I would have loved an EV a decade ago, but literally nobody is making an EV I can fucking afford before I croak.
Long story short: As with everything, the blame will be put disproportionately on the poor while ignoring that buying an EV is something most poor people simply cannot afford.
Yup, a cheap EV is an EV with a dead $20k battery in it
EVs are a lot cheaper to run so maybe you shouldn't concentrate exclusively on the sticker price. Also, in the long term EVs will be cheaper to buy than gas cars too. Right now the limited availability of batteries puts limits on EV adoption. That will change in the next few years. Then EVs will be both cheaper to buy and to run than gas cars. The problem of increasing complexity and worse repairability applies to all modern vehicles, regardless of drive train.
Golly gee whillickers, it looks like I'm already aware of that.
Once again, not before I fucking die. I've been waiting for one most of my adult life.
How, by couping a country with a lot of lithium like Bolivia?
For starters... by getting rid of lithium. Alternatives might have a lower energy density in theory but also not the thermal issues of lithium-ion batteries. Which means you can pack them more densely without issues, or -even better- produce bigger cells instead of stacking small ones. So in practice they will perform on a similiar level but cheaper, making lithium-based batteries a niche product for high-end luxury items where you pay much more for a little bit of extra performance.
Next Step: You have batteries that don't run hot or might explode when damaged anymore? Stop putting them insinde the car but make the battery an integral part of the frame.
And that's just the theoretical side. The economic reality is that a lot of the benefits of lithium batteries are not based on the tech itself but coming from a decade of experience (and optimizations) in manufacturing. A lot of that experience is partly applicable to alternatives so they will reach a similiar maturity in a fraction of the time (= just a few years).
You can currently get a brand new Chevy Bolt for around $20k.
https://electrek.co/2024/01/03/chevy-bolt-ev-prices-under-20000/
I was able to snag one for 14k if you look around.
That is because economy car buyers figured out that you can buy a used car with all the options, so why buy a new car with less options. In 1970 it made sense to buy a cheap new car as cars back then were so unreliable that a used car was not reliable. These days cars will go a lot longer, so you can buy a nice enough used car and not compromise all the features.