Elon Musk says Tesla hasn’t signed contract with Hertz for 100,000 EVs – Roadshow [CNET]

November 2, 2021 Thomas Giboney technology

Instead, Musk replied to a person tweeting about Tesla’s recent stock gains and said, “If any of this is based on Hertz, I’d like to emphasize that no contract has been signed yet.” He added, “Tesla has far more demand than production, therefore we will only sell cars to Hertz for the same margin as to consumers. Hertz deal has zero effect on our economics.” Tesla does not operate a public relations department to field requests for comment.

Hertz said in a statement, “As we announced last week, Hertz has made an initial order of 100,000 Tesla electric vehicles and is investing in new EV charging infrastructure across the company’s global operations. Deliveries of the Teslas already have started.” So, yes, this is sort of odd, to say the least. Clearly, there was some sort of agreement here.

Following news of the deal between Hertz and Tesla last week, shares of the automaker rocketed and helped propel the carmaker past $1 trillion in market capitalization. Shares are down 13% as of this writing following Musk’s comments.

Assuming there are no kinks in the plan, Hertz will have thousands of Tesla Model 3 sedans in its fleet by the end of 2022 for customers to rent. Renters will also gain access to Tesla’s Supercharger network to charge their rented Model 3 EVs as well.