Sixt says goodbye to the Teslas in its fleet
In Germany, Sixt had only integrated the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y into its fleet at some locations in Germany in 2022. The company is now backing away from the integration of these vehicles: “We would like to inform you that we are currently not acquiring any more Tesla vehicles. In addition, we are currently reducing the number of Tesla vehicles in our rental car fleet,” the German publication Focus Online quotes from an email from Sixt to customers.
According to the portal, the resales value issue with electric cars plays a particular role for Sixt. This seems to affect Tesla more than other brands. While car rental companies normally sell their cars back to the manufacturer via a “buy back” agreement and thus bear no residual value risk, there are no such agreements with Tesla, according to information from Focus Online. In addition, Tesla’s strategy of frequently changing sales prices makes any residual value forecast extremely difficult.
According to the report, around six per cent of all cars in the Sixt fleet are currently electric. It is not officially known how many Teslas were or are among them. However, it is said to be well under 5,000 vehicles worldwide.
According to the report, Sixt intends to stick to its overall goal of electrifying 70 to 90 per cent of its fleet by the end of the decade.
Incidentally, the car rental company Hertz also recently admitted trouble with their Tesla vehicles. Specifically, Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr referred to Tesla’s price cuts negatively impacting the resale value of its EVs and higher-than-expected repair costs for electric cars as a reason to slow its pace of electrification. As a result, the rental car company’s margins also remained behind expectations.
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