Hertz Selling Off Teslas as It Reduces Its EV Fleet and the Implications on the Market

Hertz Reducing EVs in Fleet

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Hertz Global Holdings, a major player in the vehicle rental industry, recently announced a significant change in its electric vehicle strategy. The company is selling about 20,000 EVs, including a substantial number of Teslas, from its U.S. fleet. This decision, made just two years after their initial partnership with Tesla, signifies a notable pivot in Hertz's approach to electric mobility and has implications for the broader EV market, particularly for Tesla.

The move by Hertz is believed to be a response to a cooling demand in the electric vehicle sector. It's a trend that is not isolated to Hertz but resonates across the industry. Automakers such as General Motors and Ford are revising their EV production plans due to this slowdown in sales growth. However, before the UAW saw the big three give major wage hikes, EVs were ramping up across the automotive sector.

Financial Impact and Market Perception of Tesla

The decision by Hertz to reduce its Tesla fleet has significant financial implications. Firstly, thousands of used Teslas are flooding the market, driving down the resale value. Second, since the announcement, Tesla’s stock has been declining.

The factors influencing Hertz's decision to sell off its Tesla fleet indicate the broader challenges the EV industry faces. The company claims that higher expenses related to collisions and damages for EVs have been a significant concern. This issue has led Hertz to shift its focus away from its initial goal of electrifying a substantial portion of its fleet. How this affects Tesla’s rumored in-house Rental Program is anyone’s guess at this point.

Tesla doesn’t do much advertising, but Hertz certainly does. The Hertz advertising campaign featured 7-time Super Bowl Champion Tom Brady behind the wheel of a Model 3. When the G.O.A.T endorses a brand, millions listen. However, this was not utilized as part of what could’ve been a parallel marketing campaign by Tesla.

Brady was even quoted as saying: “I've been driving an EV for years, and knowing Hertz is leading the way with their electric fleet speaks to how the world is changing and the way companies are approaching being environmentally and socially conscious.”

Tom Brady in a Model 3

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The Future of Tesla in the EV Landscape

The recent move by Hertz to sell a large portion of its electric fleet, particularly Teslas, signals a complex period for the EV market. It raises questions about Hertz’ transition to electric and the role of companies like Tesla in shaping its future. Tesla is the sector's pioneer and has been at the forefront of the EV industry, pushing boundaries with its innovative technology and design. However, as some manufacturers mysteriously shift away from electric (right after the big three settled labor strife), Tesla will continue to navigate these changes while maintaining its leadership position.

One of the significant challenges for Tesla in this evolving market is balancing innovation with operational and financial sustainability. The company needs to address the concerns highlighted by Hertz's decision, such as the higher costs associated with EV maintenance and repairs. Additionally, Tesla must continue to innovate in areas like battery technology, charging infrastructure, and autonomous driving to stay ahead of the competition.

Tesla's Role in a Changing EV Ecosystem

The perceived cooling demand for EVs also allows Tesla to reassess its market strategy. This could involve exploring new segments, enhancing customer engagement, and further improving the affordability and accessibility of its vehicles. Tesla's response to these market dynamics will be crucial in defining its future trajectory in the EV industry.

Tesla's influence extends beyond just manufacturing electric vehicles; it plays a significant role in shaping the EV ecosystem. For instance, the company's advancements in battery technology have implications for energy storage and renewable energy integration. Tesla's impact on the automotive industry has also single-handedly pushed other manufacturers to accelerate their transition to electric mobility.

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Is Tesla Planning to Add Steam Support to All Vehicles?

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Yesterday, we reported that Tesla updated their Steam integration on Model S and Model X vehicles. The update was part of their 2024 Holiday Update, but it looks like there may be more to this than a simple update.

Steam, a video game library app, makes it easy for users to buy or launch games on their computers. However, a couple of years ago, Valve, who created Steam, launched their own standalone device, the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck runs a custom OS based on Linux.

Steam Launch

When Tesla launched the redesigned Model S and Model X, Tesla introduced a dedicated gaming GPU with 16GB of RAM and touted the ability to play top-tier PC games in Tesla vehicles.

In 2022, Tesla finally launched the Steam app for the Model S and Model X as part of its 2022 Holiday Update. The Steam app runs Steam OS, the same OS as the Steam Deck in a virtual environment.

However, earlier this year, Tesla stopped including the GPU and Steam (Beta) in their vehicles, and we haven’t seen any updates to the Steam in quite some time. In fact, we thought Tesla was axing their gaming-on-the-go dreams.

SteamOS Update

The Steam app, which is still in Beta, is getting an interesting update for the Model S and Model X vehicles with the discrete GPU.

Those vehicles received an update to SteamOS 3.6 - the same version of SteamOS that runs on the Steam Deck. While nothing has visually changed, there’s a long list of performance optimizations under the hood to get things running smoother.

Comparing Steam Deck to Tesla Vehicles

Let’s take a look at the Steam Deck - according to Valve, its onboard Zen4 CPU and GPU combined push a total of 2 TFlops of data, which is fairly respectable, but much lower than today’s home consoles. The Steam Deck is capable of 720p gaming fairly seamlessly on low-to-medium settings on the go and is also built on the AMD platform.

AMD-equipped Teslas, including the Model 3 and Model Y, are packing an older Zen+ (Zen 1.5) APU (processor with a combined CPU and GPU). AMD claims that the V1000 - the same embedded chip as on AMD Tesla vehicles (YE1807C3T4MFB), brings up to 3.6 TFLops of processing power with it, including 4K encoding and decoding with the integrated GPU on board.

While that’s not enough for 4K gaming or comparable to a full-blown console or desktop GPU, that’s enough raw horsepower for light gaming and is currently more powerful than the Steam Deck.

The Model S and Model X’s GPU brings that up to about 10TFlops of power - comparable to modern consoles like the Xbox Series X at 12 TFlops.

Steam Gaming for All Vehicles?

The fact that Tesla is updating SteamOS even though the feature is no longer available in any new vehicles could indicate that Tesla is not only bringing Steam back to Teslas but that it’s going to play a much bigger role.

While SteamOS is run in a virtual environment on top of Tesla’s own OS, we could see Tesla bring SteamOS to all of its current vehicles, including the Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck. Steam in these vehicles would likely support any game that’s capable of running on the Steam Deck.

We think this Steam update, which includes performance improvements and a variety of fixes, has quietly passed under most people’s radars. This could be a very exciting update for those who enjoy gaming, especially for those who love to do it in their Tesla.

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Tesla Holiday Update Weather Features: All the Small Details

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As part of Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update, Tesla included two awesome new features - Weather at Destination and the long-awaited Weather Radar Overlay. These two features are big upgrades built upon the weather feature that was added in update 2024.26. The original weather feature added an hourly forecast, as well as the chance of precipitation, UV index, Air Quality Index, and other data.

However, this update also added some smaller weather touches, such as the vehicle alerting you if the weather at the destination will be drastically different from the current weather.

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Weather At Destination

When you’re navigating to a destination and viewing the full navigation direction list, the text under the arrival time will show you the expected weather next to your destination. You can also tap this, and the full weather pop-up will show up, showing your destination's full set of weather information.

Note the weather under the arrival time

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You can also tap the weather icon at the top of the interface at any time and tap Destination to switch between the weather at your current location and the weather at your destination.

You’re probably considering that the weather at your destination doesn’t matter when you’re three hours away - but that’s all taken into account by the trip planner. It will add in both charge time and travel time and show you the weather at your destination at your expected arrival time.

And if the weather is drastically different or inclement, such as rain or snow, while you’ve got sunshine and rainbows - the weather will be shown above the destination ETA for a few moments before it tucks itself away.

Tesla also recently introduced a new voice command. Asking, “What’s the weather?” or something similar will now bring up Tesla’s weather popup.

The weather pop-up above the ETA

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One limitation, though—if you’re planning a long road trip that is more than a day of driving, the weather at destination feature won’t be available until you get closer.

Weather Radar Overlay

As part of the improvements to weather, Tesla has also added a radar overlay for precipitation. You can access the new radar overlay by tapping the map and then tapping the weather icon on the right side of the map. It’ll bring up a radar overlay centered on your vehicle. It’ll animate through the radar data over the last 3 hours so that you can see the direction of the storm, but you can also pause it at any point.

You’re able to scroll around in this view and see the weather anywhere, even if you zoom out. It also works while you’re driving, although it can be a little confusing if you’re trying to pay attention to the navigation system. If you like to have Points of Interest enabled on your map, the weather overlay will hide POIs except for Charging POIs.

Requirements / Data

Unfortunately, you’ll need Premium Connectivity for any of the weather features to work, and being on WiFi or using a hotspot will not be enough to get the data to show up. The data, including the weather radar, is provided by The Weather Channel.

As for supported models, weather and weather at destination are available on all vehicles except for the 2012-2020 Model S and Model X. The weather radar has more strict requirements and requires the newer AMD Ryzen-powered infotainment center available on the 2021+ Model S and Model X and more recent Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.

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