Rental car giants drive towards electrification

STORY: Rental car giants are getting their electric show on the road

and Chinese-made vehicles are poised to play a starring role

Rental companies such as Hertz, Europcar and Enterprise Holdings

are increasingly electrifying their car fleets

In October 2021, Hertz announced the planned purchase

of 100,000 vehicles from Tesla

Meanwhile French-based Europcar has pledged

to make 20% of its fleet electric or low-emission hybrid by 2024

The electric transition could see car fleets

switch towards Asian automakers, a European executive says

Quote box:

"Historically, European and American manufacturers had an edge, but the shift towards electric is reshuffling the cards." (Olivier Baldassari, Group chief countries and operations officer, Europcar)

Baldassari says Europcar is increasingly sourcing EVs

from Great Wall Motor, SAIC Motor

and Polestar which is owned by China's Geely

He says electric cars from Chinese and Asian makers

are comparable to Western models in terms of quality

but generally cost less