OT. Hertz Buys 100,000 Teslas

[Dean Hoffman]

[Scott Lurndal]

Ah, that's why TSLA popped this morning. Might make $1,000/share today.

[Dean Hoffman]

Good. You can spoil yourself with a fancy supper.

[Scott Lurndal]

Meant to say that the stock might "reach" 1,000/share today.

The fancy supper was a week ago at the Sardine Factory.

[gfretwell]

Wonder what the deals will be like in a year or two when Hertz rolls over the fleet?

[Dean Hoffman]

The article didn't say anything about roll over. Won't Hertz be able to hang onto the Teslas longer than a ICE vehicle?

[Ed Pawlowski]

They already did change their business methods by buying electric vehicles. They have to put in charging systems and change maintenance procedures and equipment.

You can be sure they will be selling them at what they feel is the optimal times and it may or may not differ from ICE cars.

[Scott Lurndal]

Because electric vehicles don't require oil changes, smog tests, belt changes, plug changes, timing belt changes, radiator fluid changes, or any of a myriad of other automobile maintenance activities.

That changes the value proposition considerably as well as the depreciation period.

There are hundreds of reasons that an electric may last longer, mainly enumerated in vast reduction of parts related to an internal combustion engine.

[hubops]

Does the range deteriorate over the first few years ? Renters will expect ~ new battery range. Also to be considered are the suspension and cosmetic wear & tear - rentals are often driven pretty hard - stretching it to 4-5 years might seem like rent-a-wreck ? John T.

[Scott Lurndal]

10% over 200,000 miles. Not significant.

[hubops]

That seems quite good ! I was recently looking to replace my riding mower and checked-out the battery-powered ones - the big complaint on the customer reviews was the noticable loss of battery life after just the first season. .. ~ $ 2000. to replace the battery on a Cub Cadet - Pass that. Bought an Ariens gas zero turn. John T.

[gfretwell]

When we were looking at electric cars ~8 years seemed to be the cliff. After that batteries started showing significant decline. I doubt Hertz would keep a car that long. The majors tend to roll them in the

16 months to 2 years time frame. I wouldn't be surprised if they base it on maintenance history tho. You are right that an electric may have a different curve but they still try to maximize resale value while still squeezing as much juice out of car as they can. OTOH is the government giving Hertz an incentive that is attractive to them. They just returned from the dead.

[micky]

That's pretty good. I hope my cell phone does that well.

>

[micky]

That's because people don't use grass filters on their battery caps.

[gfretwell]

In 2021 I doubt something like this would use a conventional lead acid battery with caps.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Don't know. When you buy 100,000 of an item, things are negotiable. Would make sense for Hertz to do some of the service. Do you think they are going to periodically take 100,000 cars to a Tesla service center? Take it to Tesla for a checkup after every rental? Ten rentals?

I don't make assumptions and neither of us knows the terms of the deal.

[danny burstein]

[lots snipped]

I was looking at rechargable, sit down, riding lawn mowers a couple of years ago. And yes, they're lead acid.

I just checked the current offers and some are Li-ion, but yes, the lead acid ones are still hanging around.

[hubops]

The last lead-acid rider I saw was ~ 20 years ago and it was far-from-new .. ... they do go back a few years :

John T.

[gfretwell]

Hertz doesn't seem to do much maintenance themselves out here in flyover land. In the first 2 years of life it is mostly just oil changes and the normal things they do between rentals like cleaning and adding fluids. The 2 Avis cars I bought had 25,000 and 30,000 miles with only a few oil changes in the log. I bet they did it at an oil change joint. My neighbor used to be a lot manager at Hertz and they didn't do anything there but shine them up, top up the fluids and get them ready to rent again. The only difference when they get them ready to sell is they smear the shiny stuff on the tires and reset the entertainment center to factory (for several hundred bucks)

[invalid unparseable]

I'm reading that Hertz has a fleet of over 600,000 cars.

Also appears that Tesla has the biggest drop in resale value.

Maybe if you want an electric car, a used one would be the best value. Of course once the battery is shot the car is worthless with no sales value.