Hertz suspends its purchases from Polestar

After selling off most of its Tesla fleet, the car rental company Hertz takes a new step.

Hertz has been announcing for several months its intention to slow down its electrification strategy by reducing its fleet by about 20,000 vehicles. A first step was taken when the rental company put some electric vehicles, including the first Tesla Model 3s acquired, up for sale on its platform. The company has now halted its plan to purchase new electric vehicles from Polestar.

According to an article by our colleagues at the Financial Times. Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath announced that he is willing to forgo the purchase options already set on a number of Polestar vehicles this year, provided that Hertz agrees not to resell the vehicles already in its fleet earlier than planned, or at a significantly lower price than their purchase cost. A somewhat desperate but clever move when you remember small ads for Tesla 3s for less than 20,000 euros that seriously tarnished the model’s image.

Polestar has so far sold around 13,000 electric cars to Hertz out of the 65,000 units agreed upon during the grand announcement of the deal in 2022. At Polestar, they call it a “pause,” while Hertz remains silent. Some silence is golden.

This bad news for the Sino-Swedish automaker comes just days after Volvo’s decision to transfer its stake in Polestar to the common shareholder of both manufacturers, the Geely Group. Polestar had also announced at the end of January that it was forced to eliminate approximately 15% of its global workforce. As is well known, problems tend to come in flocks, even in Sweden!