German-based rental car company Sixt has announced that it’s phasing out Tesla electric rental cars from its fleets because of reduced resale costs.
Sixt isn’t the first rental car company to push back on EVs. A few months ago, Hertz announced that its EV rentals were a money loser, with many of the benefits extolled by EV advocates never materializing.
The cars broke down more often than expected and were more expensive to repair than the comparable ICE car. The resultant price cuts and surge in sales have hurt resale value, Hertz said that residuals of EVs as a whole have dropped by about a third. For a rental company that will periodically replace its fleet, that’s not great news.
People used to think of r*ntals as a last resort. But fleets today are realizing how r*nting with Kingbee compliments their current strategy by providing vans immediately on short-term, flexible contracts.
Listen to these fleet managers discuss how r*nting added efficiency to their fleets. In 3-4 weeks, you could have brand new vans wrapped in your company’s branding, upfitted with shelves and ladder racks, and shipped to your location. It’s time to get comfortable with r*nting.
ChargeHub, developer of the largest network-independent community-driven EV charging app, announced a new collaboration with Holman, a global automotive services organization, which is poised to help commercial fleet operators simplify public charging for their electric vehicles (EVs)
By providing access to any public charging station in the US and Canada along with real-time availability of stations and payment via a single account and digital wallet, the ChargeHub application is one of the most popular charging applications available today.
"As a growing number of organizations continue to embrace electric vehicles, convenient access to the full range of the public charging infrastructure is vital to mitigating range anxiety and making the transition to EVs as seamless as possible," said Emily Graham, Director of Sustainability & Electrification as a Service (EaaS), Holman.
Reindeer Logistics, an industry leader in vehicle shipping and moving services, is delighted to announce the appointment of Michael Stevens as Vice President. In this role, he will launch and strategically lead the Reindeer Premier Solutions division.
In tandem with the launch of the Reindeer Premier Solutions division, Reindeer is excited to open the company’s new Southeastern storage and service hub in Nashville, TN.
"Michael is a go-getter and I have every confidence that he’s going to take this program to the next level. Reindeer is poised to raise the bar in customer satisfaction and redefine industry standards. We look forward to a promising future under his leadership," said Debbie Boyce, CEO of Reindeer.
The New Year is nearly upon us, and the fleet industry is moving forward at breakneck pace. Ranger Design is one company with some exceptional momentum, and I was pleased to attend the Grand Opening of their new Ship Thru facility in Ladson, South Carolina, last week.
The shiny new 62,000 square foot facility is their third expansion in the past 10 years, and it will provide Ranger Design with additional warehousing capacity and will be a one-stop-shop for resellers and fleet managers offering design, manufacturing and upfitting services for commercial EV and ICE vehicles. Look for an article in next week’s issue with more details. In the meantime: Congratulations to Ranger Design on their lovely new facility!
Enjoy this week’s newsletter and please check in with Fleet Management Weekly for daily updates!
Ted Roberts
President