How Hertz’s Bet on Teslas Went Horribly Sideways

Like anyone habituated to the excesses of Wall Street, Tom Wagner and Greg O’Hara knew how to throw a party. On the night of Nov. 9, 2021, guests emerging from the oversize elevator at Zero Bond, the members-only Manhattan social club frequented by Kim Kardashian and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, were greeted with flutes of Champagne. Offerings of sliced raw tuna on crispy rice and roasted maitake mushrooms awaited them as heads turned to admire an Andy Warhol and a Keith Haring, while New Order throbbed in the background. On every cocktail napkin, emblazoned with Hertz’s familiar yellow and black, was “Let’s Go!”—the slogan for its splashy new ad campaign starring seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady.

Earlier that day, Hertz Global Holdings Inc., the rental-car giant that careened into bankruptcy during the first two months of Covid-19 burdened with a bad balance sheet and generations of even worse management, had raised $1.3 billion in an initial public offering. Somehow, in slightly more than five months, Wagner and O’Hara had pulled off one of the greatest turnarounds in corporate history.