At first there was no reaction from Hertz. The car rental company, which only came out of bankruptcy proceedings in the summer, announced an order for 100,000 Teslas by the end of 2022 last week and gave no indication that the deal could not yet be sealed. Hertz also announced that the first Teslas would be available at rental stations as early as the beginning of November.
Tesla shares rose sharply after the announcement, and the value of the electric car manufacturer passed the one trillion dollar mark for the first time on the same day. The jump also cemented Musk’s top position in the ranking of the richest people in the world.
Shortly afterwards, Musk tried to relativize the importance of the deal for Tesla. Among other things, he called it “strange” on Twitter that the news had moved the course – because Tesla had no demand problem, but could not ramp up production fast enough. Musk also emphasized that there would be no discount for Hertz.
Now Musk responded to a tweet in which he was thanked for the recent sharp rise in Tesla’s share price. “If any of this was triggered by Hertz, I would like to emphasize that no contract has been signed yet,” he wrote, affirming that the car rental company had to pay as much as consumers for the car.
A few days after the original announcement, Hertz had also added that by 2023 up to 50,000 Tesla cars should be rented to drivers who offer their services with the driver service provider Uber.
«I could imagine that Hertz would want to have some discounts at the beginning of the negotiations. But if Elon Musk agrees, Tesla would change its business model, ”said German auto expert Stefan Bratzel of the German press agency. He was therefore not surprised that Musk refuses discounts.