Hertz to buy up to 65,000 electric vehicles from Polestar

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Rental car firm Hertz Global Holdings said on Monday it would buy up to 65,000 electric vehicles over five years from Swedish EV maker Polestar, the latest move by the rental car firm to add zero-emission models.

Hertz said Polestar cars would be available beginning this spring in Europe and later in 2022 in North America and Australia.

The Florida-based rental car company said that it would initially order the Polestar 2 sedan. Hertz shares were up 1.75% in premarket trading Monday.

Hertz in October announced its order to purchase 100,000 electric cars from Tesla Inc, primarily the EV maker's Model 3.

In March, Hertz added Tesla's mid-size SUV Model Y to its electric vehicle fleet, according to the car rental firm's website.

Polestar, which was founded by China's Geely and Volvo Cars, is set to merge with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Gores Guggenheim Inc this year.

The Hertz partnership "will bring the amazing experience of driving an electric car to a wider audience, satisfying a broad variety of our mutual customers' short- and longer-term mobility requirements," Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath said in a statement.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; editing by Amy Caren Daniel and Jason Neely)