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This is due to high body damage repair costs and has nothing to do with repairing an electric powertrain: >Let me share a bit more context on the damage equati
by 1970-01-01 3y ago
This is due to high body damage repair costs and has nothing to do with repairing an electric powertrain:
>Let me share a bit more context on the damage equation. First, while conventional maintenance on electric vehicles remained lower relative to comparable ICE vehicles in Q3, higher collision and damage repairs on EVs continue to weigh on our results and negatively impacted EBITDA. For context, collision and damage repairs on an EV can often run about twice that associated with a comparable combustion engine vehicle. Second, where a car is salvaged, we must crystallize at once any difference between our carrying value and the market value of that car. The MSRP declines in EVs over the course of 2023, driven primarily by Tesla have driven the fair market value of our EVs lower as compared to last year, such that a salvage creates a larger loss and, therefore, greater burden.
https://ir.hertz.com/static-files/75a583c0-90e0-496a-8b45-9f9d9389a93a https://ir.hertz.com/static-files/75a583c0-90e0-496a-8b45-9f...
- smitty1110 3y agoBloomberg has the same story and cites high repair costs as one of the reasons, so you may be onto something.
- bombcar 3y agoThat coupled with customer complaints and annoyance could definitely sour the company on it.
- adfm 3y agoAdrian Cockcroft wrote about his Hertz experiences back in April. Update: Bad experiences renting electric cars from Hertz https://adrianco.medium.com/experiences-renting-electric-cars-from-hertz-c662d28d55cc https://adrianco.medium.com/experiences-renting-electric-car...
- Tempest1981 3y agoSeems like a lot of random complaints, from mobile apps to lane-keeping software. Not much seems specific to EVs, more just about new technologies. I guess you can rent a $20k Kia and avoid all the new tech.
- ibejoeb 3y agoIf a brand popped up and offered a gasoline ICE with old toyota-level reliability and longevity, and without electronics (save for maybe bluetooth for some music) I'd pay a sizeable premium for it.
- paddy_m 3y agoI'd like to think I would. I hope new buyers would.I would stick with used toyotas. I suspect the manufacturers know this and build accordingly.
- Scoundreller 3y agoProblem for Hertz is that everyone wants a Toyota. Why sell a fleet at fleet pricing when you have 100k in the retail waitlist queue.
- Underphil 3y agoI'm with you on that. I don't need a screen full of soon-to-be outdated software on it. I carry one with me everywhere and it works just fine.
- jquery 3y agoCarPlay is all I need. I use the car screen for navigation and that's about it.
- dylan604 3y agoI'd be fine ditching bluetooth. I'd be fine with an AUX cable. Most people have their phone on some charging mount anyways, so there's already a cable running to the location so wireless isn't much of an advantage here
- LeafItAlone 3y agoWas customer complaints cited as one of the reasons?
- moron4hire 3y agoHertz doesn't care about customer complaints, other than as a KPI that they A) still have customers and B) aren't "wasting" money on such luxury things as making sure the customer's rental is actually available when they contracted for it.
- cqqxo4zV46cp 3y agoPlease do not look for excuses to post irrelevant rants.
- t0mas88 3y agoThe title says "EVs" but really it's "Teslas" they're not selling their Polestars.
- llboston 3y agoAt the moment only 636 Teslas for sale. https://www.hertzcarsales.com/used-tesla.htm https://www.hertzcarsales.com/used-tesla.htm
- yreg 3y agoOut of 675 electric cars on sale. We will see.
- LeafItAlone 3y agoReuters included Polestars.
- schainks 3y agoHad an awesome experience with a Hertz Polestar in Italy last summer. The trim was basic, but the suspension was superior to a Tesla, especially on Italian roads. Road noise was average at highway speeds with the cheaper trim.
- afavour 3y agoAgreed. Got a Polestar for a surprisingly cheap price on Hertz recently and I was really impressed with it. If I were in the market I think I’d take it over a Tesla.
- phinnaeus 3y agoOoof. I own a Model 3 and was really looking forward to my Polestar 2 rental in NZ over the holidays. It felt like a massive downgrade in pretty much every way to me. The biggest thing was the responsiveness, it was on par with a standard ICE vehicle in terms of how sluggish it was. I was incredibly disappointed given that I would love to look elsewhere (from Tesla) for my next vehicle.
- hangonhn 3y agoIs there a reason why body damage on an EV would cost more to repair?
- dougmwne 3y agoYes, because the Model 3 incorporates quite a bit of aluminum in the body. This is good for weight savings, but more difficult to work with. The root cause is that batteries are too heavy so other components must be made lighter.
- rootusrootus 3y agoThe Model S has a fair amount of aluminum in the body (about 400 pounds or so, IIRC). The Model 3 is much more biased towards steel for most of the body, due to cost.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Underphil 3y agoDo you know why it's harder to work with? My untrained brain would have assumed it was easier, what with it being more malleable.
- userbinator 3y agoAluminum is more brittle and far more difficult to weld than steel.
- WarOnPrivacy 3y agoBut we're comparing to fiberglass, not steel.
- Smoosh 3y agoPossibly due to Work Hardening. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_hardening https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_hardening
- NickM 3y agowhere a car is salvaged, we must crystallize at once any difference between our carrying value and the market value of that car Hang on though, this part has nothing to do with repair costs. This just sounds like an accounting issue, right? If anything I would expect this to benefit Hertz since they could write off the higher loss in their taxes immediately, instead of waiting until future years to write the value off via depreciation. On the other hand, I can see how this would make their numbers look worse at a glance since it shows up as though they lost money, but in fact no actual assets have been lost; they have the same car, it was repaired, and the repair was paid for by insurance, but now it looks like they took a loss because an arbitrary accounting rule forces them to adjust their balance sheet in a different way than they would otherwise. Not sure if I'm understanding this right but it sure sounds like Hertz is flat-out admitting that they're making sub-optimal business decisions to make their numbers look better. Wouldn't that be a blatant violation of their fiduciary duties?
- londons_explore 3y agoYou may have discovered one of many reasons Hertz has been skirting with bankruptcy...
- nicoburns 3y agoI would imagine the difference would manifest itself in higher insurance rates. You can't just "write off more value" for free.
- cyberax 3y agoHertz self-insures.
- throwaway_08932 3y agoAnd that's why it really Hertz them.
- paddy_m 3y agoOne of the reasons large rental companies self insure is so that they can do repairs in house without listing cars as salvaged. They make it back on resale I think I read this from car dealership guy.
- sytelus 3y agoSomeone told me if butterfly door gets jammed (and it would in rainy weather), it costs $20 to fix just one door! This person has sweared that he will never ever buy another Tesla again. l How did Tesla didn’t got this right?
- namdnay 3y agobut don't they charge body repairs back to customers with juicy markups? i thought that was a core part of the car rental business model