Hertz strikes a big EV charging deal with an oil-and-gas company.
Key Details
- Hertz Global has been gearing up a stacked electric vehicle fleet, now its next big step is supplying chargers for that fleet.
- The car rental company has partnered with BP Pulse, formerly known as Amply Power, to develop a network of charging stations at Hertz locations across North America.
- This partnership follows General Motors announcement that it is selling up to 175,000 EVs to Hertz over the next five years.
Why it’s news
Hertz is working hard to supply electric vehicles (EVs) to its millions of customers, but the company has to be able to keep the vehicles charged thus creating this deal with BP Pulse.
BP Pulse was formerly known as Amply Power prior to the 2021 acquisition by the oil and gas company BP. The company will both build and manage the EV charging stations it is placing at Hertz locations.
In order to manage and maintain thousands of charging stations BP Pulse will use its proprietary Omega software.
Omega handles three key issues: workflow management to make sure rental vehicles are fully charged when customers pick them up; uptime and reliability to ensure the chargers are in working order and compatible with a variety of EV makes and brands; energy management which provides operators an accurate picture of energy cost and use, according to president of BP Pulse’ U.S. fleet division, Vic Shao.
Supplying EV power to Hertz fleet isn’t the only goal. Shao explains that Hertz locations tend to be in perfect spots for other drivers needing to charge their vehicle.
“We’ve done a lot of demographic studies, on where Uber drivers and Lyft drivers, rideshare drivers and taxi drivers, what parts of a given city do they live in, what parts of the city do they operate in,” says Shao. “A lot of these locations are, quite frankly, under served. It just so happens that they match up very, very well to locations that Hertz operates from. We believe by setting up these charging stations we will help the greater rideshare and taxi communities transition to electric a lot faster.”
Backing up a bit
General Motors is sending its EVs to Hertz.
General Motors announced that it is selling up to 175,000 electric vehicles to Hertz Global over the next five years.
Starting in the first quarter next year, GM will start to supply electric vehicles such as the Chevrolet Bolt EV and Bolt EUV to the rental car company.
