Calling all city halls! it’s time to get proactive on electric transportation
In October last year, Hertz, after going bankrupt during the pandemic, announced that it planned to acquire 100,000 Tesla Model 3s. The news attracted a lot of attention because a leading car rental company was reducing its carbon footprint, sending Tesla’s shares soaring, and briefly making it a member of the select billion-dollar club for a while.
But most people missed a key part of the story: Uber, which has never made money in its entire life but plays an important role in the mobility of many cities. Hertz’s goal was to close an alliance with Uber that allows the company’s drivers to rent electric vehicles on a long-term basis, and use them to provide passenger transportation service.
For Uber, the Tesla Model 3s are a great fit: their range of almost four hundred kilometers makes it possible to provide a daily service in a reasonably flat city with a short recharge at lunchtime, especially bearing in mind that the platform restricts how many hours its drivers can be behind the wheel.
In addition, the low cost of recharging at a supercharger compared to the current price of diesel, the low maintenance and pleasant driving experience make it easy to recoup the $300 week drivers pay for the vehicle, increasing the operating margin. Which is why more than…
