Swedish electric car maker Polestar is selling up to 65,000 electric vehicles to Hertz over the next five years, the companies announced Monday.
The move follows an order Hertz placed for 100,000 electric cars made by Tesla in October 2021.
Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath previously told Automotive News Europe that stretch goal for 2022 was to sell 65,000 cars. Polestar sold 29,000 cars in 2021, which represented a 185% increase from 2020, according to sales figures the company released in January.
Hertz plans to order the compact Polestar 2, one of the EV company’s two vehicles currently on the market. The model features an Android Automotive OS-powered infotainment system that includes built-in Google applications, and has a 270-mile estimated range on a single charge, according to the company. Polestar has announced plans to increase its two-car lineup with a medium-size SUV, a compact SUV and a sports sedan by 2024, as well as the Polestar O2, an electric roadster concept car.
“The partnership with a global pioneer like Hertz will bring the amazing experience of driving an electric car to a wider audience, satisfying a broad variety of our mutual customers’ short- and longer-term mobility requirements,” said Ingenlath in a joint press release Monday. “For many of them it may be the first time they have driven an EV, and it will be a Polestar.”
Polestar spun out from Volvo in 2017 and has now established itself as a standalone electric car brand, though it “enjoys specific technological and engineering synergies with Volvo Cars and benefits from significant economies of scale as a result,” according to the company. The company remains co-owned by Volvo and Volvo parent company Geely, a holding group focused on the automotive industry that recently released plans to go public in a deal expected to close in by mid-2022.
The EV maker made headlines after its Super Bowl ad seemingly swung at Elon Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX ventures with the promise: “No conquering Mars.”
Polestar vehicles will first be available to Hertz renters in Europe starting this spring, with rollout in North America and Australia starting in late 2022.
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