Hertz took delivery of half its massive Tesla order of 100,000 electric cars

Hertz disclosed that it took delivery of only half its massive Tesla order of 100,000 electric cars.

However, the numbers don’t add up.

In 2021, Hertz announced an important effort to electrify its fleet of rental cars, led by a massive purchase of 100,000 Tesla Model 3 vehicles. More recently, the company added Model Y vehicles to the order.

The rental car company said that it expects to have all 100,000 Tesla vehicles by the end of 2022 – though Tesla didn’t seem to be completely on board with that timeline.

Today, Hertz’s disclosed through its annual filings for 2022 that it ended the year with about 48,344 Tesla electric vehicles:

Hertz’s 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.

The media is reporting that this is disappointing since it appears that Hertz only took delivery of about half of its planned 100,000 Tesla vehicles.

However, the numbers are pretty confusing.

Shortly after announcing the Tesla order, Hertz announced that on top of adding Tesla vehicles to its rental fleet, the company also made a deal with Uber to offer its drivers access to the Tesla vehicles. Fifty-thousand Tesla vehicles will be offered for rent to Uber drivers, and the company has an option for more if the program is successful.

Last month, Hertz confirmed that nearly 50,000 Uber drivers had rented a Tesla through this program.

It’s still unclear if this program is accounted for on top or alongside Hertz’s fleet Tesla consumer rental. Either way, it would be strange for Hertz to have fewer than 50,000 Tesla vehicles and yet have a visibly large fleet of Tesla vehicles for consumer rental and had nearly 50,000 Uber drivers renting Tesla vehicles through its program, which is more for long-term rentals.

Last month, Hertz and Uber also announced a new deployment of 25,000 Tesla and Polestar EVs in Europe.