Shares of car rental giant Hertz plunged more than 20% on Thursday after the company reported huge losses related to investments in electric vehicles (EVs).
Hertz has been struggling for months, focusing all its efforts on EVs. Hertz executives announced Thursday that the company’s first-quarter loss of $1.28 per share was many times larger than Wall Street’s expectations for a 45% loss per share.
Even though Hertz’s business was actually busier than expected, it incurred higher-than-expected losses. The company had revenue of $2.1 billion, slightly above expectations.
Hertz executives announced in January that the company would sell 20,000 EVs, about 33% of its total EV fleet. This week, Hertz executives Said The company plans to sell another 10,000 EVs from its fleet this year.
In return, the company buys gas-powered cars, which executives say are in much higher demand than EVs. This lack of demand means delays in Hertz’s plans to buy 175,000 EVs from General Motors and 65,000 from Polestar.
“Fleet costs and direct operating costs weighed on our results in the quarter,” Hertz CEO Gil West said. “We are addressing both issues: ensuring an adequate supply of vehicles at an acceptable capital cost, while increasing productivity and reducing operating costs.”
West was appointed CEO after Stephen Shah resigned in the wake of the EV fiasco.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
