Hertz only bought half of the Teslas planned for its fleet

That means Hertz had fewer than 50,000 Teslas in its fleet, less than half of the 100,000 the company said it would order by the end of 2022.

Hertz’s October 2021 announcement of its Tesla order took the electric-vehicle maker’s valuation above $1 trillion for the first time. It also helped spark interest in the rental car company, which held its post-bankruptcy IPO two weeks later.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk tempered his company’s stock rally days after Hertz’s announcement by tweeting that no deal had been signed and that the EV maker had far more demand than production. Tesla’s market cap at the close on Monday was $616.2 billion.

Hertz’s filing provides some clues as to why it added far fewer Teslas when the car rental company said it would order. The first risk factor the company lists in relation to its EV initiatives is that the strategy depends on the “ability to ensure adequate vehicle supply within the timeframes expected by us and our customers.”

Another factor that may have come into play is that Tesla has raised prices several times over the past year, which may have made cars more expensive to acquire than Hertz expected. However, Tesla cut prices across its lineup last month.