Hertz plans to add up to 65,000 Polestar EVs to its rental fleet

Car rental company Hertz announced on Monday that it plans to buy up to 65,000 electric vehicles over five years from Polestar, the 5 year-old Swedish EV maker. 

The cars are expected to be available in Europe by Spring of this year and in North America and Australia in late 2022. Hertz will initially order the Polestar 2, which includes an infotainment system powered by Android Automotive OS with Google built in.

The new deal is part of Hertz’s goal to offer the largest EV rental fleet in North America and one of the largest in the world. Back in October, the company said it would order 100,000 Teslas by the end of 2022 in a deal reportedly worth $4.2 billion.

For Polestar, the deal gives the young automaker a chance to introduce itself to a broader market. 

“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,” Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath said in a statement. “For many of them it may be the first time they have driven an EV, and it will be a Polestar.”

Polestar was founded in 2017 as a standalone automaker by Volvo Cars and Geely Holding. The company reported that it nearly tripled volumes in 2021 and anticipates more than doubling volumes again this year. It expects to be selling 290,000 vehicles per year by the end of 2025. 

While Polestar is gaining traction in the burgeoning EV market, it has a long way to go to catch up with Tesla, which just announced it delivered more than 310,000 vehicles in Q1 of this year.