Hertz orders 100,000 Model 3 electric vehicles from Tesla

DETROIT — Car rental company Hertz is ordering 100,000 electric vehicles from Tesla.

The company says it’s buying the Tesla Model 3 small cars by the end of 2022, and it also will buy electric vehicle chargers.

No price was given for the order, but it has to be worth around $4 billion because each Model 3 has a base price of around $40,000.

Hertz emerged from bankruptcy protection in June and named former Ford CEO Mark Fields as interim CEO in October.

Fields says the Estero, Fla.-based company intends to lead as a mobility company with the largest electric vehicle rental fleet in North America. He says EVs are now mainstream vehicles, and the company is starting to see rising global demand and interest.

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection in May 2020. It was among the first major corporations to be felled by the pandemic last year as infections surged and shut down travel on a global scale for both companies and vacationers.