Hertz and Polestar announced a new partnership today that will see the rental company buy up to 65,000 electric vehicles from the Swedish automaker over the next five years.
“We are excited to partner with Polestar and look forward to introducing their premium EV products into our retail and rideshare fleets,” said Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr. “Today’s partnership with Polestar further builds on our ambition to become a leading participant in the modern mobility ecosystem and doing so as an environmentally-forward company.”
The purchase is part of a global partnership, the companies say, that will allow European customers to start renting Polestar vehicles through Hertz this spring. North American and Australian customers, meanwhile, will have to wait until late 2022.
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“We are delighted that Hertz has chosen Polestar as a strategic partner on their road to electrification,” said Thomas Ingenlath, Polestar’s CEO. “The partnership with a global pioneer like Hertz will bring the amazing experience of driving an electric car to a wider audience, satisfying a broad variety of our mutual customers’ short- and longer-term mobility requirements. For many of them, it may be the first time they have driven an EV, and it will be a Polestar.”
The deal is part of Hertz’s commitment, announced in October, to becoming the rental company with the largest EV rental fleet in North America and one of the largest in the world. At that time, it also announced that it would buy up to 100,000 Tesla vehicles, though Elon Musk later cast doubt on that deal’s certainty. The company also plans to offer EVs to rideshare drivers.
“By working with EV industry leaders like Polestar, we can help accelerate the adoption of electrification while providing renters, corporate customers, and rideshare partners a premium EV product, exceptional experience and lower carbon footprint,” said Scherr.
Hertz customers can first look forward to being able to rent the Polestar 2, an all-electric, high-riding sedan that was the automaker’s first mass-market vehicle. The Swedish automaker has more EVs in the works for the near future, though.
