Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Hertz went from a comeback story to a mess all over again. They got out of bankruptcy in 2021, tried to rebrand themselves as the cool electric future of rental cars, and then dropped almost three billion dollars in losses. The plan was simple. Load up on Teslas and other EVs, save money on gas and repairs, and ride the hype. The reality was brutal. Repairs were higher than expected, renters kept crashing the cars because they were way faster than the usual airport Corolla, and people on vacation did not want to sit around hunting for chargers. Then the market turned on them. EV prices fell, Tesla cut prices, used EV values tanked, and Hertz was stuck with a massive fleet worth way less than they paid. They started unloading cars by the tens of thousands, sometimes selling barely used models for half of what they cost. The whole thing turned into a giant reminder that being early only works if the economics back you up, and for Hertz, none of it did.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/hariharan-jayakumar-silo
Instagram: instagram.com/hariharan.jayakumar
Timestamps:
0:00 - The State Of Hertz
0:23 - The Big Pivot
3:58 - Bumps In The Road
7:54 - The Fall
Resources:
pastebin.com/Q5sScKZF
Hertz went from a comeback story to a mess all over again. They got out of bankruptcy in 2021, tried to rebrand themselves as the cool electric future of rental cars, and then dropped almost three billion dollars in losses. The plan was simple. Load up on Teslas and other EVs, save money on gas and repairs, and ride the hype. The reality was brutal. Repairs were higher than expected, renters kept crashing the cars because they were way faster than the usual airport Corolla, and people on vacation did not want to sit around hunting for chargers. Then the market turned on them. EV prices fell, Tesla cut prices, used EV values tanked, and Hertz was stuck with a massive fleet worth way less than they paid. They started unloading cars by the tens of thousands, sometimes selling barely used models for half of what they cost. The whole thing turned into a giant reminder that being early only works if the economics back you up, and for Hertz, none of it did.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/hariharan-jayakumar-silo
Instagram: instagram.com/hariharan.jayakumar
Timestamps:
0:00 - The State Of Hertz
0:23 - The Big Pivot
3:58 - Bumps In The Road
7:54 - The Fall
Resources:
pastebin.com/Q5sScKZF
