GO WOKE/EV - Go broke
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Hertz CEO Out As Firm Seeks Traction After Big EV Bet Goes Bust

SUNDAY, MAR 17, 2024 - 09:05 AM

CEO Stephen Scherr's barely two-year ride with Hertz came to a screeching halt on Friday. In his wake, he leaves a company still working to recover from a big bet on electric vehicles gone bad. It will do so under new CEO Gil West, whose previous posts include executive roles at Delta Air Lines and the Cruise unit of General Motors.

Scherr, who came on board in February 2022 after 30 years at Goldman Sachs, ushered the company through its emergence from bankruptcy. Hertz's EV push began in the previous year, with a splashy move to order 100,000 Tesla Model 3 vehicles. After taking the reins of the Estero, Florida-headquartered company, Scherr doubled down on the green vision, committing to purchased another 65,000 EVs from Polestar, a Swedish company.

Traveling in the US. @Hertz has rows & rows of EVs that no-one wants to rent. They claimed I booked one when I didn't. Gold member & they mess me around like this.

I refused the EV & eventually I got a real car. What a hassle.

Go woke. Go broke. Rethinking my loyalty to Hertz.

— FermiLevels (@FermiLevels) September 10, 2023

In December 2023, Hertz emphatically demonstrated that its massive EV push just wasn't working out, throwing 20,000 EVs into the used-car market to start a systematic liquidation planned to extend through 2024. "The company expects to reinvest a portion of the proceeds from the sale of EVs into the purchase of internal combustion engine vehicles to meet customer demand," Hertz said at the time, adding, "The company expects this action to better balance supply against expected demand of EVs."