Hertz is unloading 30,000 used cars on the market. The mileage might not be the lowest, but they’re all 2022 or newer and lovingly maintained by the company’s team of professional mechanics. While most used-car prices remain sky-high, the prices on these gently used babies is shockingly low.
There’s just one catch: they’re all Teslas.
Hertz, you might have read, came out of bankruptcy a couple of years ago and placed a big bet on electric vehicles. The rental firm had originally planned to buy no fewer than 100,000 EVs for their fleet but ended up with quite a bit fewer at 30,000 — almost all of them Teslas.
Now Hertz is selling them all for the simple reason that people didn’t want to rent them. The company bought those Teslas when prices were high, and now they have to sell them at fire sale prices in a market already saturated with new EVs selling at lower prices and bigger discounts than ever.
What an ignominious way to emerge from bankruptcy, right?
While the deals may look tempting — and a used EV sold for $24,999 or less can get buyers a $4,000 tax credit — used EVs come with a bigger caveat emptor than the typical used car.
First, there’s the depreciation. iSeeCars reported in January that, on average, “electric cars have a five-year depreciation rate of 49.1%… compared to an overall industry average of a 38.8% five-year depreciation rate.” Executive analyst Karl Brauer added, “This pattern will continue until electric vehicles don’t require heavy incentives to sell and consumers gain confidence in their long-term ownership costs.”
NO, thank you!