--- title: Can Rental EVs Survive After Hertz's Shift Back to Gas Cars? description: Hertz's electric vehicle pullback is a reminder of the importance of consumer education. canonical: https://time.com/6564195/hertz-ev-pullback/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-01-18T20:10:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:50:37.123Z article:section: Climate og:title: Can Rental EVs Survive After Hertz's Shift Back to Gas Cars? og:description: Hertz's electric vehicle pullback is a reminder of the importance of consumer education. og:url: https://time.com/6564195/hertz-ev-pullback/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9682371ad4d04e4e/698a43fbcabb1d8b4ce52248/Hertz-electric-vehicles-Tesla.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Hertz Hosts One of the Largest EV Test Drives in the US og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Can Rental EVs Survive After Hertz's Shift Back to Gas Cars? twitter:description: Hertz's electric vehicle pullback is a reminder of the importance of consumer education. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9682371ad4d04e4e/698a43fbcabb1d8b4ce52248/Hertz-electric-vehicles-Tesla.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Can Rental EVs Survive After Hertz's Shift Back to Conventional Vehicles? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Future Proof: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Future Proof is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Making sense of the climate and energy economy. Future Proof examines the forces transforming energy and climate, and what those changes mean for business, technology, policy and the global economy. Senior correspondent Justin Worland goes beyond traditional climate coverage to connect the energy transition to the bigger decisions reshaping companies, markets and society. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: AAA Is Providing More Roadside Assistance for Electric Vehicles [Watch (HLS stream): AAA Is Providing More Roadside Assistance for Electric Vehicles](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/KmYRy4nz.m3u8) (3:07)  _Published 2024-01-16. AAA provided roadside assistance to 160,000 EVs in the U.S., representing a 180% increase from 2019, according to data shared with TIME. The majority of those cases involved tire damage. But those very big numbers are actually very small numbers._  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jan 18, 2024 8:10 PM UTC  Guests attend as Hertz kicks off one of the country’s largest electric vehicle test drives at the company’s Los Angeles International Airport location last July. Guests attend as Hertz kicks off one of the country’s largest electric vehicle test drives at the company’s Los Angeles International Airport location last July. Rodin Eckenroth—Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jan 18, 2024 8:10 PM UTC (_To get this story in your inbox, subscribe to the TIME CO2 Leadership Report newsletter_ [_here_](https://www.time.com/co2-newsletter)_._) When Hertz announced in 2021 that it would build out its electric vehicle rental fleet, the move was received as a clear signal that the transition to EVs was moving full speed ahead. The company bought 100,000 Teslas and hired Tom Brady to headline its related ad campaign. But the winds have shifted. Last week, Hertz said it would pull back on that decision and sell a third of its EV fleet. The cost of repairing damage to EVs remains stubbornly high, and, more generally, the company said that it needed to match its supply of EVs with lower consumer demand than anticipated. There’s another related factor that has received less attention: customer education. Hertz’s 2021 announcement touted data showing widespread consumer interest in EV. Indeed, [survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/07/13/how-americans-view-electric-vehicles/) after [survey](https://www.kbb.com/car-news/survey-most-americans-say-they-wont-buy-an-ev-next/) has shown that a significant share of Americans are interested in going electric. But those same surveys have shown persistent consumer concerns about issues like charging. Electric vehicles are a new technology and most renters are unlikely to know how to operate them yet. From the beginning, a significant part of Hertz’s challenge was not only getting customers interested in EVs but also getting them up to speed on all the ins and outs of operating the technology. "There are millions of Americans, in fact millions of consumers around the world, who are knowledgeable and experienced in EVs, and they ride them well," CEO Stephen Scherr [said](https://www.cnbc.com/video/2024/01/11/hertz-ceo-stephen-scherr-cuts-to-ev-fleet-about-bringing-supply-in-line-with-demand.html) on CNBC last week. "There are those that experiment and their knowledge of how to drive this car... may be part of the issue." ### More From TIME **Read more:** [_The Lesson From BYD’s EV Takeover: Don’t Discount China_](https://time.com/6554994/china-byd-ev-takeover/) Hertz has tried to address the steep customer education barrier. In its second-quarter earnings call last year, Scherr touted the company’s “robust digital and other educational content” and said it had deployed “EV ambassadors” to inform customers. And yet anecdotal reports about how well those programs have been executed are mixed. Some renters have reported great experiences with eager associates who explained everything. Others, myself included, have felt left in the lurch. Last November, I rented an “intermediate” car from Hertz only to discover when I arrived to the assigned stall in the parking garage that the company had assigned me an electric vehicle. This was not what I had reserved, and no human had mentioned it to me. I did receive an email from Hertz with resources about my EV rental—but it landed in my inbox when I was already on the road. Looking through the materials now, they actually seem quite helpful. Short videos explain how to operate each specific EV model that the company rents, and a custom-built website allows the user to chart a journey between charging stations. If only someone from Hertz had told me about it before I got behind the wheel. The company declined to share any data about the success or challenges of its customer education program citing a quiet period before the company’s coming earnings announcement. But it’s clear that the issue has been a focus. In an earnings call last year, Scherr cited Hertz's customer education programs as a key strategic move to position the company as an EV leader. “What you are seeing at Hertz is an evolution of readiness and smart investments that are not easy to replicate quickly,” he said. The following quarter he cited new “educational tools on EV functionality” to help reduce the frequency and cost of damage to the cars. **Read more:** [_The Main Reason EV Drivers Call AAA For Help is Not Dead Batteries_](https://time.com/collection/time-co2-futures/6556242/electric-vehicle-aaa-roadside-calls/) The stakes of customer education are significant. Hertz has positioned its electric vehicle move as a gateway for consumers to experience and eventually adopt EVs and now the pullback has contributed yet another headwind to that bigger objective. There’s a lesson in here, too, for any company operating a consumer-facing business that’s changing in response to the energy transition. Customers are going to need some hand holding. In some ways, this is an obvious insight. Customer education is a basic component of any business school marketing course. Still, it’s a topic that can often get lost in the midst of seemingly more important concerns about pricing, costs, and other fundamentals. And, as Hertz shows, it’s a task that can be harder than it seems. ## Transcript AAA service is over 30 million vehicles at the roadside every year and one and every four households has a AAA membership whenever a big Market change like electric vehicles happens. We see that happening are renewing our data as well. The reason there's more Tire issues for a veces kind of comes down to two different things to electric vehicles are about 30% heavier than a gasoline vehicle the same size and as a result of b a tremendous amount of strain you combine that with the fact that electric vehicles can accelerate and stop very quickly and it's all of the things that a tire doesn't like having to go through all this forces. And then if you think about something that is 30% heavier and you hit a pothole got about the same size tire on it and quit it a vehicle is 30% lighter and bingo. You've got a got a lot of Tire problems and that combined with the fact that they tend to wear tires out more quickly. Yeah. There's a lot of Tire related issues then take off most of us don't have spare tires. So anytime there's a problem. They've got to call AAA. About 2% of the calls that weekend or four people that run out of gas about 4% of the evening is that call us or four people that have run out of charge to still a very small percentage of the population of the types of requests that we get, but but it does exist and range anxiety is a valid concern for people particularly those that are using it for more than just commuting AAA has set up a 24 markets across the grass in which we have the ability to charge an electric vehicle at the roadside if it can be done safely and if you're not in one of those markets or that service is not available or you're broken down along the roadway where is not safe to sit and charge the vehicle will tell you to the nearest charging facility. What are the point that we should hit on a lot of the calls that we get from people with electric vehicles are actually at charging stations. And you think why is that? Well the truth is that a high percentage anywhere between 25 and 50% of the charging station publicly available are not working at any given time. 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