Why Hertz chose Elton as a part of their EV effort

Hertz is making a big push into electric cars. By 2025, over 50% of their national fleet of approximately 12,000 vehicles will consist of electric cars. Some regions already have almost exclusively electric cars. To achieve this, they needed a charging solution that was scalable and simple, so that their customers could charge along the way. Marketing and Communications Director Hallvard Nerbøvik and Glenn Simonsen, Franchise Development Manager, explain why they chose Elton.

Saves enormous amounts of time and resources

"There were several reasons why we chose Elton, but I can highlight the most important ones. Elton was first to market and the only one that gathered multiple operators in one solution at the time. This gave our customers the greatest possible coverage throughout the Nordic region. Secondly, Elton is fully digital. We believe that's much better than RFID cards. Keeping track of cards in 12,000 cars becomes a lot of work and money for tracking, training, and preventing misuse. Avoiding that part saves us enormous amounts of time and resources. Finally, we like that Elton has a 'startup spirit'. It makes it easy to find solutions, work agile, and get started," says Glenn Simonsen, who helped implement Elton in 2023.

Elton is used by both all of Hertz's customers and company cars. For customers, Elton is a tool for easy charging. The same applies to company cars, but Elton also provides seamless cost control and access management without extra administration.

Customers who rent an electric car from Hertz get the opportunity to have all charging with Elton invoiced to the same bill from Hertz as for the rest of the rental relationship. This means they only need to pay in one place for everything, regardless of where they charge with Elton in the Nordic region. Customers who have agreed to charge with Elton receive an SMS that takes them through the app setup, so they can easily get started.

"Hertz is many drivers' first encounter with an electric car. Whether they are Norwegian or foreign, it often means a need for training. Elton's app solution makes this easy with its own onboarding in multiple languages, so both Norwegians and tourists can get started. Elton isn't just charging, but also route planning and charging maps, quite simply everything our customers need in one solution," says Hallvard Nerbøvik.

Handing over an electric car customer to Elton feels safe

Glenn was involved in implementing Elton at Hertz and feels confident that their customers can handle electric car charging if they get started with Elton.

"This is how we see it: Hertz takes care of car checkout, Elton takes care of charging. We know they're a partner that takes it seriously. If a customer chooses to charge with Elton, things work as they should. Handing over an electric car customer to Elton feels safe."

Glenn remembers from early on how it was a bit challenging for completely new electric car drivers to understand range and plan the trip with charging stops before they had Elton.

"When we started with electric cars, I met customers at Gardermoen who needed things clearly explained. What I used to tell them about electric cars was that the electric car is a bit dumb. It doesn't know how far it is to the next charger. If you arrive at the hotel, you yourself have to know how much battery you need to have to get to the next destination. Elton solves that."

Among the world leaders in electric cars

"We're so satisfied with the solution with Elton that we've visited Hertz Europe to tell them about how we've solved it with electric cars in the rental market in Norway. That everything related to charging along the way is solved with one partner is an important point. We're quite simply far ahead here, and it shows," says Hallvard.

Customers are more positive about electric cars after Elton was introduced.

"If we take it as simply as looking at satisfaction around charging for our customers, it increased markedly after we introduced Elton. At the same time, the market has changed in many ways, there are more chargers and batteries last longer, but we attribute much of the general satisfaction to easy charging with Elton," says Glenn.

"And for foreign tourists, it's gold that they only need to leave card information with Hertz. Then everything can be paid there, instead of them having to leave card information in many different places," Hallvard adds.

"Before, customers who had ordered a fossil fuel car were a bit dissatisfied when they had to have an electric car. But since it's so easy to be introduced to charging with Elton, we see that customers are more positive after having tried an electric car. That's very important for us when we're investing as heavily in electric cars as we are."

Smooth setup and collaboration

"The agreement was originally dependent on Elton being able to tailor solutions for us and they have delivered on that. They continue to deliver on that as well. We're a larger organization with multiple needs. An agile partner who can quickly make adjustments is necessary. The setup went smoothly, and we have good dialogue to this day. To be honest, it's such that things really just roll along and work, it just works. Hertz is satisfied with the arrangement today," says Glenn.

Easy electric car charging lets Hertz utilize more of the electric car fleet at once

"We've managed to increase the utilization of our electric cars massively. There's almost no difference in utilization of electric cars versus fossil fuel cars anymore. This is huge, since traditionally the thinking was that electric cars had to spend more time charging before and after rental periods. But this year, utilization of electric cars is 80%. That's the same level as for fossil fuel cars, and up from 69% in 2023. There are of course several reasons for this, cars have better batteries, there are more chargers along the way, but we see a jump after we started with Elton. Elton quite simply makes it easier for us to utilize our electric car fleet," says Glenn.

"Charging and electric cars often had friction around them previously. That's almost completely gone with Elton. We want to be market-leading also in our position as an electric car operator in Norway, the Nordic region, and Europe. Then we need collaborative partners that work. And that's Elton," Hallvard concludes.