Hertz is taking another step towards the electric future. Over the last year, the company announced plans to add 100,000 Teslas and 65,000 Polestars to its fleet. Now the rental giant has announced plans to order up to 175,000 Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac and BrightDrop EVs over the next five years.

Regular readers know of our skepticism of superlatives, but we’ll allow Hertz and GM to call this “the broadest” fleet EV order to date, as it spans a wide range of vehicle categories and price points, from compact and midsize SUVs to pickups, luxury vehicles and even commercial vehicles.

“This initiative…will dramatically expand our EV offering to Hertz customers, including leisure and business travelers, rideshare drivers and corporates,” said Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr.

It’s a large order for GM, and it could breed more—for some customers, renting a car is an extended test drive. GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra is confident that the deal “will help create thousands of new EV customers for GM.”

Hertz expects to begin taking delivery of Chevrolet Bolt EVs and EUVs in the first quarter of next year. The company says it will soon have EVs available for rent at 500 locations across 38 states, and that it hopes to make a quarter of its fleet electric by the end of 2024.

Source: GM