Hertz and GM on Tuesday announced a joint agreement in which the rental car firm will order Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac and BrightDrop EVs through 2027. Hertz expects to begin taking delivery of Chevrolet Bolt EVs and Bolt EUVs in early 2023.

GM CEO Mary Barra said in a statement the automaker's work "with Hertz is a huge step forward for emissions reduction and EV adoption that will help create thousands of new EV customers for GM."

Hertz current goal is for one-quarter of its fleet to be electric by the end of 2024. In April, Hertz said it would buy up to 65,000 electric vehicles over five years from Swedish EV maker Polestar and in October 2021 Hertz its intent to purchase 100,000 electric cars from Tesla, primarily the EV maker's Model 3.

(Reporting by David Shepardson)