Uber confirmed on October 27, it entered into a partnership with Hertz to offer 50,000 Tesla vehicles as a rental option for its drivers.
The agreement is almost immediate, since Uber drivers will be able to rent a Tesla-brand car through Hertz from the first day of November.
For now, the possibility is enabled in four US cities, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Washington DC, but the idea is that by the end of 2021 it will be extended to more cities, as confirmed by Uber on its blog. And in the future, to the rest of the markets where Uber has a presence.
The Tesla rental focuses on the brand’s best-selling sedan, the Model 3, which will be available exclusively to Uber drivers for $ 330 per week, including insurance and basic maintenance.
Uber’s strategy is for the rental value of Tesla’s Model 3 through Hertz to drop to $ 299 per week as the program expands to more cars and cities in 2022.
The news came within 48 hours of knowing that Hertz ordered 100,000 Tesla-brand vehicles in a business that amounts to about $ 4 billion.
When it became known that the largest order in the history of Elon Musk’s company had taken place, Tesla shares soared past $ 1,000, bringing the market value to more than $ 1 trillion.
Uber’s decision to partner with Tesla through Hertz goes hand in hand with its marketing strategy focused on electric vehicles. The transport company is committed to having only ecars in the United States, Canada, and Europe by 2030, and worldwide by 2040.
Likewise, it is still a long way away, in 2019, the latest data available, only 0.16 percent of all the kilometers traveled by Uber in the United States and Canada were with electric vehicles.
Hertz, which is in the process of exiting bankruptcy, aims for its approach to electrification to allow it to make a difference and return to being a leader in the car rental market, as it once was.
For Tesla, the agreement is also key because it allows it, on the one hand, to have a secured sales base. On the other hand, because more consumers will know first-hand what it is like to travel in their cars that do not run on traditional fuel.