As the global transition to green energy accelerates, electric vehicles (EVs) were once seen as the mainstream mode of transportation of the future. However, a series of recent events have shown that even large international car users are cautious about electric vehicles. The decisions of car rental giants Hertz, Sixter Car Rental and SAP seem to have cast a shadow over the future of new energy vehicles.
Thomas Inglaert, CEO of Swedish electric car manufacturer Polestar, has revealed that Hertz has decided to suspend plans to buy Polestar electric vehicles for all of 2024. Behind this decision, the real challenges that the electric vehicle market is facing.
The partnership between Hertz and Polestar was once seen as a boon for the electric vehicle market. According to the agreement, Hertz had planned to purchase up to 650,000 Polestar cars, worth up to $3 billion. But now Hertz has chosen to shift its focus back to gasoline vehicles, a decision that raises questions about the future of electric vehicles.
In Hertz's earnings report, the company made it clear that electric vehicles have problems such as low rental demand, low residual value, and higher maintenance costs than expected. 11% of Hertz's fleet is electric, 80% of which are Tesla vehicles. However, the performance of these Tesla electric vehicles did not meet expectations. Hertz said the rental demand for electric vehicles is much lower than that of gasoline-powered vehicles, and the lower residual value of electric vehicles, combined with higher-than-expected maintenance costs, has forced the company to rethink its procurement strategy.
Similar decisions were made to Sixter Rent a Car in Germany. The company has decided not to purchase Tesla cars anymore and is gradually replacing them from its fleet. Sixter has pledged to achieve 70-90% electrification of its fleet by 2030, but at the moment, Tesla does not seem to be meeting its procurement needs.
In addition to Hertz and Sixter, German software giant SAP has also become the latest company to remove Tesla from the list of electric vehicle buyers. SAP has 290,000 units of its own fleet, but its fleet director recently said that Tesla's selling price fluctuates greatly, increasing the difficulty and economic risk of fleet planning. In the past two years, Tesla has cut prices many times, taking the used car market in the United States as an example, the value of Tesla Model Y has fallen by about 30%.
All these phenomena show that although electric vehicles have obvious advantages in terms of environmental protection and energy saving, they still face many challenges in actual operation. Of course, this doesn't mean that the future of electric vehicles is bleak. With the continuous advancement of technology and the gradual maturity of the market, these problems of electric vehicles are expected to be gradually solved.
Disclaimer] All **are** in the network synthesis, this article aims to provide more information for the majority of car enthusiasts and netizens, and has no commercial use, if there is any infringement involved, please contact us in time to communicate and delete!