Last week Hertz announced an initial order of 100,000 Teslas as part of its plans to convert to an all-electric rental fleet. The news sent Tesla (TSLA) share prices soaring to over $1,000, before closing at over $1,200 yesterday.
Then late last night Musk sent a bit of an odd tweet. Despite the frenzy around the news and Hertz ploughing hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars into marketing and rebranding, Musk said no contract has been signed yet between the two companies.
You’re welcome!
If any of this is based on Hertz, I’d like to emphasize that no contract has been signed yet.
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 2, 2021
Unsurprisingly, this lead to a drop in pre-market trading, with TSLA opening down nearly 7% at the morning bell.
Despite Musk’s tweet, Hertz said on Tuesday it has already started receiving Model 3s and that demand for the electric vehicles (EVs) has been strong.
“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. We are seeing very strong early demand for Teslas in our rental fleet, which reflects market demand for Tesla vehicles,” Hertz said in an email to Bloomberg.
Hertz has already added the Model 3 to its reservation website, with prices being extremely competitive in comparison to comparable gas-powered rentals. The company will also be covering the cost of Supercharging until January 31, 2022.
The EVs have so far only appeared in the U.S., but in a statement to Drive Tesla last week, Hertz said they plan to introduce them in Canada early next year.
Hertz Tesla Model 3 rental rates already appearing on reservation website [Update]
