Hertz has fewer Teslas in its fleet than planned

Hertz has fewer Teslas in its fleet than planned

(Reuters) – Hertz Global Holdings Incs rental fleet has less than half the number of Tesla cars it planned to order in 2022, its regulatory filing showed on Tuesday.

Hertzs fleet in the Americas peaked at 428,700 vehicles for the year ended Dec. 31, 2022, of which 11% were Tesla cars, the filing showed. The company had an additional 1,187 Teslas in its international fleet.

That implies the companys fleet has 48,344 Tesla EVs, or less than half of the 100,000 electric cars the company decided to order from the automaker by the end of 2022.

Hertzs decision to bolster its fleet with Teslas had briefly helped the EV maker hit $1 trillion in market value in 2021.

However, after a year of slowing demand for cars, supply chain disruptions and Elon Musk‘s Twitter distraction, the company’s market capitalization stands at $616.24 billion as of last close.

Hertz did not give details on why it has added fewer Teslas than it originally planned to order.

The car rental service on Tuesday forecast upbeat revenue and profit for its second and third quarters as it expected a weak economy to boost demand for rental cars.

(Reporting by Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil DSilva)