THEY’RE BAD FOR BUSINESS AND OTHER LIVING THINGS: CEO steps down after being hit with expensive EV repairs and low resale prices following purchase of 100,000 Teslas.
Stephen Scherr, who ran Hertz for just over two years after three decades at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., has decided to step down, the rental-car company said late Friday in a statement. It’s replacing him with Gil West, the former chief operating officer of General Motors Co.’s Cruise robotaxi unit. West also will join the board of directors on April 1, according to the statement, which confirmed an earlier Bloomberg report.
Scherr, 59, joined Hertz several months after it emerged from bankruptcy and started making splashy wagers on electric vehicles. Under new owners Knighthead Capital Management and Certares Management, the rental company announced plans to order 100,000 vehicles from Tesla Inc., sending the automaker’s market capitalization soaring past the $1 trillion mark at the time.
Business is oftentimes no more immune to popular fads than individuals are, sad to say. But you have to wonder if, in Hertz’s case, bringing in a finance guy from a Democrat-friendly Wall Street firm made them extra susceptible to the EV frenzy.