Jeff Nieman, senior vice president of Operations Initiatives for Hertz joins Cheddar News to discuss how Hertz and bp pulse plan to install a national network of EV charging solutions. 

Hertz Teams Up with BP to Install EV Chargers Nationwide

and joining us now with more is Jeff Niemann senior vice president of operations initiatives for Hertz, Jeff. Thanks so much for joining us today on the back of this exciting news. What details can you tell us about this partnership with BP pulse to build these charging stations and why did you choose BP for this? Good morning. Thanks thanks for having me. And for the record, I voted yes on the, on the dark mission. Um, so the project that we have, you know, going, we've been quite vocal about our electrification initiatives that herds. We've currently got a goal for a quarter of our fleet to be electrified by the end of of 2024. And as as doing that, one of the critical backbones to successes infrastructure and you know, BP pulse has been a great partner with us and helping build out not only an internal network but then a framework for an external network for our customers to utilize while they're on the go and and renting an E. V. Vehicle. And we find this to be critical, you know, to the customer journey And and we look forward to providing that network exclusively to our customers. You know, how many charging stations can we expect to come out of this partnership and where will these stations actually be located? You know, we're still working through a ton of details around the actual numbers, but I would say, you know, we're starting with our top airports and the properties around them. Uh, we were operating in in most airports across the country at this point. And so, you know, when, when you, when you look at where those facilities are, you know, those are where we're circling on the map and so the numbers will grow over time. Um, but we're focused there on our on our top airports to start. Now. You mentioned that not only will this be for internal use, but will the public actually be able to use these charging stations as well? Yeah, absolutely. There's there's a there's a few phases to it. So one phase is internal behind our walls where we're recharging cars so that the next customer that's taken the vehicle. I will have a minimum of an 80% charge and then the external component will come into play next year as those as those front facing locations begin to be developed and deployed. And so yes, the there will be public access to a lot of of charging that's specific to where our customers go. Electric vehicle infrastructure has been a major concern to the extent that President Biden's infrastructure bill actually allocates 7.5 billion toward constructing infrastructure. Now. 2.5 billion of that will be allocated through a competitive grant program. Will you be seeking out any of that funding through this partnership? Yeah, we're we're in constant contact uh with with the administration and and working through plans on how we can best partake it's not necessarily part of what this deployment considers but as we look to build out further and further to the, to the public will, will certainly, uh, we will certainly work with the registration on deploying funds in the appropriate manner. And you know, I think we're excited, you know, that the federal government is leaning in and that the states are leaning in the way that they are as it's, it's gonna be a necessary component for not only the federal government, but for state and then city governments to, to actually lean into this because the nation's infrastructure, uh, you know, is, is massive and you've got to have a ton of coordination as you're building these, these critical components out so that you're not unbalanced, you know, from, from where you're putting the infrastructure based on where the needs are. And so we look forward to working with the administration, which has been a great partnership so far. Now. I should mention Jeff a recent other announcement from Hertz that it was acquiring up to 175,000 electric vehicles from General Motors over the next five years? It also announced deals to purchase TVs from Tesla and Poll Star, Are there any other automakers that you're looking to strike deals with to get to that point of building your fleet up to 25% electric vehicles? Yeah, no, that's a great question. We, we are in discussions with multiple automotive manufacturers on new TVs that they're developing both near term and long term are, are, you know, mission is to electrify air fleet and in doing that, you know, we're going to need to work with multiple O E M s to to make that a reality. And so if if if the o e m you know, is is producing an e v, we're in discussions with them. Jeff, thank you so much for your time today. That's Jeff Niemann, senior vice president of operations initiatives for Hertz.