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Musk says Tesla has not signed a contract with Hertz yet

The rental car company insists it's moving forward with plans to acquire 100,000 electric cars

Tesla’s top boss Elon Musk said the company had not signed a contract with Hertz, more than a week after the car rental firm announced a massive deal with the electric carmaker.

Tesla’s shares fell four per cent in early trading on Tuesday, after a steep jump following the news of the biggest-ever order – 100,000 electric cars for Hertz – on October 25, which helped Tesla breach US$1-trillion in market capitalization.

Musk tweeted late Monday, “If any of this is based on Hertz, I’d like to emphasize that no contract has been signed yet.”

“Hertz deal has zero effect on our economics.”

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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However, Hertz said in a statement that the deliveries of the Teslas had already started.

“We are seeing very strong early demand for Teslas in our rental fleet, which reflects market demand for Tesla vehicles.”

Hertz’s interim Chief Executive Officer Mark Fields had told Reuters last week the order will primarily include Model 3 vehicles. Considering Tesla’s cheapest Model 3 sedan starts at about $44,000, the order could be worth about US$4.4 billion, if the entire order were for the mass-market sedan.

“Tesla has far more demand than production, therefore we will only sell cars to Hertz for the same margin as to consumers,” Musk said.

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