It seemed like a good idea at the time. Now we know better.
Hertz, reeling from a bankruptcy and the pandemic, announced plans to buy 100,000 Teslas in late 2021. The splashy move certainly helped Elon Musk’s electric-vehicle maker, which saw its market cap surge past $1 trillion for the first time.
Hertz enjoyed a bump in its market value as well, and the car-rental giant hired NFL star Tom Brady to show off its new fleet of Teslas.
“How do we democratize access to electric vehicles? That’s a very important part of our strategy,” interim CEO Mark Fields said at the time. “Tesla is the only manufacturer that can produce EVs at scale.”
But Hertz paid close to list prices for the Teslas, rather than demanding a large discount as car-rental giants often do. That decision would come back to bite it.
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