Hertz buys 65,000 electric vehicles from EV startup Polestar

Hertz Corp., a rental car company, announced on Monday, April 4, that it signed a deal with Polestar, an electric vehicle startup firm, for the supply of EVs for its business. Based on the reports, the subsidiary of Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. will purchase up to 65,000 vehicle units in over five years.

According to Reuters, Hertz's decision to buy EVs from Polestar as part of its goal to have zero-emission models units in its vehicle lineup. The company said that the models from Polestar will start arriving in Europe starting this spring and later this year, the others will be brought to North America and Australia.

As part of the deal, Hertz will initially place an order for Polestar 2 sedan models. After the announcement of its deal with the Swedish automotive company, it was reported that the car rental firm's shares rose by 1.75% in Monday's pre-market trading.

"We are excited to partner with Polestar and look forward to introducing their premium EV products into our retail and rideshare fleets," Hertz's chief executive officer, Stephen Scherr, said in a press release. "Today's partnership with Polestar further builds on our ambition to become a leading participant in the modern mobility ecosystem and doing so as an environmentally-forward company."

The CEO went on to add, "By working with EV industry leaders like Polestar, we can help accelerate the adoption of electrification while providing renters, corporate customers and rideshare partners a premium EV product, exceptional experience and lower carbon footprint."

Polestar was able to sell 29,000 of its vehicle models last year and with its sales outcomes these days, it is expecting to sell even more and ultimately reach 290,000 units per year by the end of 2025. As for Hertz, this deal with the automaker is a major step for its plant to have the most expansive fleet of rental EVs in North America and become one of the biggest in the world, as per CNBC.

Meanwhile, Polestar was established in 2017 via a joint venture between the Chinese carmaker Geely and Volvo Cars. This year, it is reportedly set to merge with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Gores Guggenheim Inc. and go public through the merger.