Hertz orders 100k Teslas • Hacker News Board

Re: Hertz orders 100k Teslas

#51

Post by lrem » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 1:53 PM UTC

moralestapia wrote: post #44

Colour me skeptical. Hertz just declared itself bankrupt a year ago, now they have 4bn cash to spare? Both things cannot be true in such a small timespan. Either the 'bankruptcy' was a fraud, or the Tesla deal has some small letters like "of which we will acquire 1,000 per year for the next 100 years". Sure, the official story is "we were bankrupt but we found new investors at the most convenient time", but that coul…

Literally the first line of TFA: Car-rental firm, recently emerged from bankruptcy under new ownership, orders vehicles by the end of 2022

Re: Hertz orders 100k Teslas

#52

Post by wefarrell » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 1:53 PM UTC

Only months after they exited bankruptcy.

Re: Hertz orders 100k Teslas

#53

Post by zbrozek » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 1:54 PM UTC

postingawayonhn wrote: post #18

Guest42 wrote: post #10

I wonder the pricing.

Tesla doesn't seem to have any problem with demand so I would speculate they're paying the advertised price.

The other price to wonder about is that of the rental vs ICE vehicles.

While I daily-drive an EV, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want one for a rental just yet. Charging infrastructure isn't quite to the point that you can teleport to some random place and not need to think at all about anything. Tesla is closer to that than anybody else.

I also tend to just drive more when I'm traveling, and so the range limitations will be much more meaningful under those circumstances than normal. My Bolt gets me about 240-280 miles of real driving per charge and it's totally fine for everything I normally do.

Of course I applaud Hertz for supporting consumer choice in this regard. Different folks will have different needs on different trips, myself included.

Re: Hertz orders 100k Teslas

#54

Post by nitrogen » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 1:55 PM UTC

moralestapia wrote: post #44

Colour me skeptical. Hertz just declared itself bankrupt a year ago, now they have 4bn cash to spare? Both things cannot be true in such a small timespan. Either the 'bankruptcy' was a fraud, or the Tesla deal has some small letters like "of which we will acquire 1,000 per year for the next 100 years". Sure, the official story is "we were bankrupt but we found new investors at the most convenient time", but that coul…

Were they out of value, or just out of cash?

Re: Hertz orders 100k Teslas

#55

Post by quartz » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 1:56 PM UTC

cblconfederate wrote: post #43

> Car-rental firm, recently emerged from bankruptcy under new ownership, orders vehicles by the end of 2022 That does sound crazy that they re doing it while they ll be still in pandemic, which bankrupted them in the first place. I guess in the US people can always find a charger. I wonder how many people will rent those cars for the novelty factor, and novelty only works once. And it will be interesting to see what…

I wonder if the goal is to consume the market so it's more difficult for other rental car companies to get Teslas?

Personal anecdote but I already am generally willing to pay a slight premium for Hertz over other rental companies and would be willing to pay slightly more still if it meant renting a Tesla.

Re: Hertz orders 100k Teslas

#56

Post by nunez » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 1:56 PM UTC

This is the best thing that could happen to EVs. If Hertz is throwing down, it's likely that National and Avis will follow suit. (National is partially owned by Ford, which might complicate things.) This was also my primary use case for Turo, so I'm excited to rent my favorite car from a conventional rental car company

Re: Hertz orders 100k Teslas

#57

Post by yardie » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 1:56 PM UTC

atonse wrote: post #24

dhosek wrote: post #11

How will they overcharge for gas with these?

Even higher margins with electricity. Instead of charging you $5 a gallon, they can even charge $.50 per kWh (or translate it to miles) and that's something like a 3x markup. Even more if they use a renewable energy source. In my rough calculations, it costs something like $5-$7 to charge from empty to full on my Model-3 mid-range.

My ICE car is $50-$70 to fill the tank (26gal/100l) from empty to full. And gets me 450-500 miles. So I'm a tad bit jealous, just not enough to take on a car payment.

Re: Hertz orders 100k Teslas

#58

Post by PaulHoule » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 1:56 PM UTC

My first take is negative.

American car makers dug themselves a hole because there were a few populations that would buy American cars no matter how bad they got: refugees from WWII (e.g. old Italians, Poles, Jews and Veterans who would never buy a German or Japanese car), police departments, and rental cars. In a case like that the Ralph Naders and the Consumer Reports can be pointing out how bad your product is but they can point to people who still buy it, cover their ears and sing "la la la".

In principle renting a car could be an experience like "I drove a Buick and I liked it" (happened once to me) but more often the vehicle has been trashed, things like the controls for the seat position are busted, etc.

Car rentals move some metal in the short term but they damage the brand in the long term.

Re: Hertz orders 100k Teslas

#59

Post by dependsontheq » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 1:56 PM UTC

dna_polymerase wrote: post #38

Everyone with a bit of AI/ML knowledge already knew this but from this story it should be clear that Tesla's plan to convert their fleet into self-driving Taxis is basically dead.

Well it never was a "plan" was it? It always was more like a "story".

Re: Hertz orders 100k Teslas

#60

Post by gruez » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 1:56 PM UTC

akmarinov wrote: post #19

aqzman wrote: post #15

I say this having never driven a Tesla, but are they really suitable rental cars? My understanding is that Tesla vehicles differ quite a bit from regular ICE vehicles, to the point that there's a bit of a learning curve to operating the car. I'd be interested to hear from a Tesla owner on this. Maybe it's a non-issue.

In what sense? They’re quite a bit quicker than ICE cars and regeneration is something you need to get used to, but nothing that’s radically different. With these the big issue would be charging them - people might not know not to go to a gas station. Also wonder how the “full tank” policy will work with EVs where ideally you want to hover around 80% Where they might not be suitable rental cars is the reliability. Th…

>Also wonder how the “full tank” policy will work with EVs where ideally you want to hover around 80%

I thought for electric cars, that's already baked in? in other words, the car displays 100% and stops charging, but the battery is actually 80% charged. Also, I think for electric cars, they'll waive the "full tank" requirement or charge you a reasonable amount to make up the difference (cost of electricity plus a small markup). I sure as hell don't want to spend 30 minutes at a charging station the morning of my flight.