GM General Motors has agreed to sell up to 175,000 electric vehicles to Hertz Global over the next five years, the companies announced Tuesday. The deal calls for GM to begin supplying electric vehicles like the Chevrolet Bolt EV and Bolt EUV to the rental car giant starting in the first quarter of next year. These vehicles are expected to follow newer EV models in the company’s Ultium battery technology, such as the Chevrolet Blazer, Chevrolet Equinox and vehicles from other GM brands. GM is expected to significantly increase its production of all-electric vehicles in the coming years as production of the cars and trucks in North America — and the battery cells used to power them — increases. The company plans to reach production capacity of 1 million EVs in North America and China each by 2025. GM is the latest automaker to strike such a deal with Hertz after Tesla and Polestar, an electric vehicle startup backed by Volvo. Those deals covered 100,000 and 65,000 vehicles, respectively, making GM’s deal the largest of the three. “Our work with Hertz is a huge step forward in emissions reduction and EV adoption that will help generate thousands of new EV customers for GM,” CEO Mary Barra said in a statement. Hertz has made growing its fleet of electric vehicles a priority since emerging from bankruptcy less than a year ago. The debt-laden company was an early casualty of the coronavirus pandemic, but has since rebounded amid growing demand for travel and supply chain issues. The problems resulted in lower inventory but higher profits for rental car fleets. Shares of GM and Hertz were relatively unaffected by the announcement. Both were down at midday Tuesday amid a broader market decline. Investors have traditionally frowned on automakers selling large volumes of vehicles to daily rental fleets. That’s because cars and trucks sold to rental companies are typically sold at a discount, with such deals used to reduce bloated inventory and increase their total vehicle deliveries. But shareholders and analysts responded favorably to automakers like Tesla selling EVs to Hertz, seeing the move as a sign that battery electric cars are becoming more mainstream. Hertz aims to have a quarter of its fleet electric by the end of 2024, while GM has announced plans to offer all-electric vehicles by 2035.
