Stephen Scherr, who ran rental car giant Hertz for over two years after three decades at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., has decided to step down in the wake of a disastrous bet on electric vehicles (EVs) that the company began unwinding in recent months.
Hertz will replace him with Gil West, the former chief operating officer of General Motors’ Cruise robotaxi unit. West will also be joining the company’s board of directors on April 1.
“Gil is a fantastic operator. We worked side-by-side for a dozen years,” Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian said in an interview, noting West’s previous role in Delta’s integration with Northwest Airlines. “He’s an innovator, he loves technology, he’s meticulous, he’s curious and he loves a challenge – all great attributes.”
West was previously considered as a CEO candidate by eventual company owners Knighthead Capital Management and Certares Management during bankruptcy proceedings in 2020 when the company was reeling from the economic downturn caused by lockdowns. Executives from both firms had previously approached West to leave Cruise, but GM had big plans for robotaxis at the time and did not want to let West go.
So, in the interim, investors installed Mark Fields, who previously ran Ford Motor Company, before finally settling on Scherr in February 2022.
GM eventually let go of West at the end of last year. Following Scherr’s announcement of his resignation, Knighthead and Certares executives approached West again, saying they are confident that he’d be a better fit with Hertz by virtue of his firsthand experience with EVs.
Thanks to your generous support, we are building the infrastructure of human freedom and actively donating our technology to independent publishers, authors and home schooling organizations. Learn about our game-changing non-commercial AI project here. Support our ongoing efforts to preserve and enhance human knowledge by shopping at HealthRangerStore.com.
West will be the latest in a long line of Hertz CEOs tasked with making the company more profitable amid stiffer competition and a downturn in finances.
Massive push for EVs and lackluster demand hurt Hertz
Hertz doubled down on its decision to invest in EVs when Scherr took over, placing orders for hundreds of thousands of EVs with electric carmaker Polestar, owned by Chinese giant Geely with Sweden’s Volvo Car. The company only ended up buying a small number of EVs from the two companies.
The company’s bets on a big EV expansion went awry last year when Tesla slashed prices across its lineup to keep vehicle sales afloat. This hammered the resale value of used Model 3 sedans and Model Y crossovers just after Hertz added tens of thousands of them to its fleet of rental cars. By December, Hertz started selling off 20,000 EVs, or about a third of its EV fleet.
Hertz announced its EV sell-down plans in January, citing lackluster demand, costly depreciation and expensive repairs. The Florida-based company took a $245 million charge and reported its biggest quarterly loss since the pandemic.
Education Minister Robert Halfon has resigned from government, confirming he will be the 63rd Conservative MP to stand down at the next election. The MP for Harlow, who has been in parliament since 2010, said "political life, while fulfilling, has its ups and downs", and he felt it was "time for me to step down". Politics live: Two ministers join growing Tory exodusQuoting the wizard Gandalf from Lord of the […]
Post comments (0)