Hertz has been contacting people who are in the middle of renting electric vehicles recently to offer them the option to buy the car instead of returning it, reports The Verge. And the offers are pretty sweet, according to some renters who shared the offers on Reddit.
One renter was reportedly offered a 2023 Chevy Bolt for $18,442, another was offered a 2023 Tesla Model 3 with only 30,000 miles on it for $17,913, and still another got an offer to buy a Polestar 2 for $28,500. On top of that, Hertz is offering up a limited 12-month, 12,000-mile powertrain warranty, and a buy-back offer within seven days.
The reports come nearly a year after Hertz said it would sell off a third of its EV fleet, most of which are Teslas, citing lower demand and higher-than-expected repair costs.
Hertz has a history of selling cars that it plans to offload, which include gas-powered vehicles, and reaching out to renters to see if they are in the market for the car they’re currently renting. But the EV deals are particularly notable for buyers looking for a serious discount to what is often an unaffordable car, and, in some cases, with decent mileage to boot.
Due in part to the accelerated sell-off of the somewhat new EVs, Hertz recorded $937 million in vehicle depreciation in the third quarter, a significant increase compared to the year prior, and depreciation per unit of $537. The company said it expects the depreciation per unit to normalize to under $300 by the end of 2025.
This article was updated to include more context around Hertz’s business of selling vehicles.
