EV.com Inc.

Trade name	EV.com
Company type	Private
Industry	Automotive
Founded	2022; 2 years ago (2022) in Delaware, United States
Founder	Joel Li
Headquarters	New York , United States
Area served	United States Canada France Germany
Products	Electric vehicles
Website	ev.com

EV.com Inc., commonly known as EV.com, ^[1] is an online electric vehicle marketplace company founded in 2022 by Yale University alumni Joel Li, ^[2] that facilitates the buying and selling of new and used electric vehicles by retailers such as Hertz Global Holdings, one of the three big rental car holding companies in the United States. ^{[3] [4]}

The company has been the subject of serious controversy related to its partnerships. A 2022 agreement between General Motors (GM) and Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. intended to supply 175,000 electric vehicles over five years encountered delays due to issues with GM's battery factory, causing significant impact on EV.com's inventory. ^[5]

In January 2024, when Hertz decided to shift its strategy and sell roughly 20,000 of its electric vehicles that are predominately Tesla cars, ^[6] outlets such as Auto Trader (in the United Kingdom) and EV.com (in the United States) flooded the EV second-hand market causing market saturation and price pressure on consumers and automarkers. ^{[7] [8]}

EV.com has also been criticised for contributing to the greenwashing efforts ^[9] by car manufacturers like General Motors (GM) ^[10] and Volkswagen. ^{[11] [12]}

History

Early history: twentieth century

On July 26, 1994, the two-letter dot-com domain name ev.com was registered, ^[13] being one of only 676 domain names of its kind in existence. ^{[14] [15]}

21st century and evolution into a marketplace for electrical vehicles

In June 2022, a privately held Canadian automotive company acquired the domains ev.com, ev.ca, ev.de and ev.fr ^[16] in a sale worth an estimated 8,500,000 US dollars, ^[17] with ev.com becoming one of the only 99 publicly reported sales of a two-letter dot-com domain name in internet history. ^[18]

On September 20, 2022, EV.ca Inc. was incorporated in Canada, ^{[19] [20]} listing its founder Joel Li, an alumnus of the Yale University, ^[2] on its board of directors. The parent company, just two days later, was incorporated in Delaware, United States on September 22, 2022, as EV.com Inc. ^[21]

In January 2023, Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (commonly known as Hertz), ^{[22] [23]} signed a partnership agreement with the company to allow its newly acquired fleet of electric vehicles to be sold on EV.com's online marketplace. ^{[24] [25]}

In March 2024, the Canadian subsidiary of the company, EV.ca Inc., rebranded and changed its legal name to EV.com Corp. ( trading as EV.com), ^[1] to match its parent company in the U.S.

Controversies

In September 2022, General Motors (GM), announced a partnership where the car manufacturer would sell 175,000 electric vehicles to the rental car giant, Hertz, over the next five years, ^{[26] [27]} allowing Hertz to sign a deal with EV.com. General Motors (GM), however, quickly ran into problems with its struggling battery factory, ^{[28] [29]} putting the partnership it had announced with Hertz, in 2022, at risk ^{[5] [30]} causing significant delays and shortages on the inventory of EV.com. ^[31]

In January 2024, Hertz decided to shift its strategy and sell roughly a third of its entire fleet of electric vehicles, ^[6] flooding the EV market through outlets such as Auto Trader (in the United Kingdom) and EV.com (in the United States), ^{[7] [8]} despite the announcement it made in October 2021 that the company would buy 100,000 electric vehicles from Tesla, Inc. in a deal that would net more than US$4 billion for the American automaker. ^[32]

The company has also been accused of helping greenwash ^[33] the images of car manufacturing companies such as General Motors (GM) ^[34] and Volkswagen. ^{[35] [36]}

References

External links

Media related to EV.com Inc. at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website