Hertz announced today that it’s partnering with BP to install thousands of electric vehicle (EV) chargers across the country, making it easier than ever before to charge your car during your travels. The program will install 1,500 EV chargers at rental car locations and BP service stations in Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, New York and New Jersey by the end of this year, with plans to expand nationwide in 2019. That means no matter where you are—whether you’re on vacation or traveling cross-country—you’ll have access to an EV charger when you need one!
To create a new nationwide network of electric car charging stations, Hertz is collaborating with the multinational oil company BP.
The rental vehicle giant is collaborating with a BP affiliate to install thousands of additional chargers at its U.S. facilities. In the last year, the company announced agreements to acquire a total of up to 340,000 EVs from Tesla, Polestar, and General Motors by 2027.
In accordance with the agreement, BP Pulse, the oil company’s EV-charging division, will install the chargers and offer software and services to assist Hertz in managing its rapidly expanding fleet of EVs.
According to the firms, many of the chargers will be used to recharge EVs in Hertz’s own fleet, but some will also be made accessible to drivers of cabs and ride-hailing services as well as the general public. The availability of chargers is frequently mentioned as a possible barrier to further EV adoption by American consumers.
In accordance with an earlier agreement, BP Pulse had installed chargers at 25 of Hertz’s busiest airport sites. They did not say how many they would ultimately construct.
At around 500 of its facilities in 38 U.S. states, where it has been installing its own chargers, Hertz already has thousands of EVs available for rental. By the end of 2023, it anticipates having around 3,000 chargers operational at its locations throughout the US.
By the end of 2024, the corporation wants EVs to make up a quarter of its fleet.
The new agreement will include software to assist Hertz manage the challenging work of maintaining its expanding EV fleet charged and prepared for rental, Vic Shao, who heads BP Pulse’s fleet business, according to CNBC.
In the case of gasoline or diesel, Shao said to CNBC, “you have a situation where the cost for the fuel goes up or down by maybe you know, 25%, a given year or something like that.” However, in other areas, such as California, “electricity costs might fluctuate by 400% each day.”
Therefore, scaling up is exceedingly challenging when managing a huge fleet without a fix on the cost of your ‘fuel,’ in this instance electricity. You must control your operational costs, he advised.
As part of managing what he called the “choreographed dance” of having a fleet of EVs fully charged and available for clients, Shao claimed that BP Pulse’s fleet software will assist Hertz in lowering its power costs by arranging cars to recharge at less expensive periods of the day.
The two businesses want to construct chargers that will be accessible to the general public in addition to chargers and software to support Hertz’s own fleet, making use of Hertz’s high-traffic areas around the nation. The businesses anticipate that the main users of those charges will be ride-hailing drivers, notably those who hire electric vehicles from Hertz.
According to Hertz, more than 25,000 Uber drivers have used Tesla vehicles they have booked through the ride-hailing company.
