Breaking: Tesla is Reportedly in the Early Stages of Setting Up a Car Rental Company to Take on Hertz

Despite the enormous size the company has grown to, Tesla is still relatively good at keeping things under wraps when it comes to new announcements.

The EV maker garners a lot of attention, however, it’s rarely we get any major leaks ahead of big product announcements. This has been the case at Tesla from the very beginning, however, as the EV maker has grown there appears to be one channel of communication that consistently jumps the gun on Tesla’s announcements.

And this is the company’s career page. We can look to Tesla’s careers page and based on the new job openings, we can accurately predict what the EV maker is looking to announce soon. 

Some examples of Tesla’s Career page unintentionally revealing the EV maker’s future plans include… Tesla posted a job opening for an individual to run and manage a Megapack factory out of Shanghai a couple of weeks ahead of Tesla announcing that it’s looking to open a Megapack factory in China.

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Other examples include job openings for Cybertruck production line workers ahead of Tesla announcing that it has begun trial run production of release candidate Cybertrucks at Giga Texas.

This is to say, Tesla’s careers page has been a good source to look at what sorts of new announcements the EV is looking to make in the near future. And once again, thanks to Tesla’s human resources department, today, we’ve received our first information hinting that Tesla is looking to enter the car rental market.

The now-removed job opening on Tesla’s Career page is for a Program Manager, Business Development. Tesla divides the roles of the job into two main areas. These are “Lead the launch of Tesla rental program in Texas,” and “Glass repair optimization.”

In the description for the “Lead the launch of Tesla rental program in Texas” part of the job, the EV maker writes the duties of the job…

• support the team in launching a small pilot in all Texas collision sites
• Document and communicate areas of opportunity and process improvements for the greater team
• Work cross-functionally to help automate the process for a much larger launch
• Lead Texas sites through a larger launch to a sustainable state with appropriate resources, training, and processes in place
• Support the launch in airports for the Tesla employee pilot

The roles of the job suggest that Tesla is looking to set up a pilot car rental program in Texas. From the description, we can also see that initially the car rental program will be offered in collision centers in Texas and then grow to airports in Texas with the first customers being Tesla employees.

NEWS: @Tesla to launch rental program in Texas.

The company has a job posting for a Program Manager of Business Development: "Support the team on launching a small pilot in all Texas collision sites"

1/3 pic.twitter.com/8VtEyBMKgC
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) August 17, 2023

The glass repair optimization part of the job on the other hand seems to be mainly focused on improving repair time and cost for glass replacements. 

The dual mandate of the job suggests Tesla plans to quietly roll out the rental program as part of a broader collision repair offering then expand it to employees in airports and finally to the general public.

Job posting: https://t.co/oi0mh5aCih
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) August 17, 2023

As Tesla exponentially grows vehicle production, it only makes sense that the EV maker would venture out to offer other services including insurance and rental programs.

However, what is interesting here is that Tesla already has a deal to supply Hertz, which is one of the largest car rental companies in the world, with 100,000 Model 3 and Ys to be used in Hertz’s rental fleet.

Given the deal between Tesla and Hertz, it’s interesting how Tesla entering the car rental business will affect the working relationship between the two companies.

Currently, this is all the information we have regarding the launch of Tesla’s car rental program, however, we’ll be sure to keep you posted when we learn more about Tesla’s plans. Until then, make sure to visit our site torquenews.com/Tesla regularly for the latest updates.

So what do you think? Excited to learn that Tesla is working to launch a car rental service? Also, short term how do you think this move will affect Tesla’s relationship with car rental companies including Hertz? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Image: Screenshot from Hertz YouTube Channel

For more information check out: Elon Musk Says He’ll Live Stream 1st Tesla FSD V12 Drive Next Week Without Mark Zuckerberg Fight

Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and The evolution of the EV space on a daily basis for several years. He covers everything about Tesla from the cars to Elon Musk, the energy business, and autonomy. Follow Tinsae on Twitter at @TinsaeAregay for daily Tesla news