Hertz will buy 100,000 Tesla Model 3s by the end of next year, the car rental company announced Monday. The major purchase, by the company that filed for bankruptcy last year in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, was broadly seen as a significant step toward the widespread adoption of electric vehicles. Hertz plans to partner with Tom Brady, the highly-successful, if controversial, NFL quarterback who was friendly with Donald Trump to promote its EV push. Once the purchase is complete, EVs will make up more than one-fifth of the Hertz fleet.

The purchase also pushed up Tesla’s stock price, raising its market capitalization to over $1 trillion for the first time. “Electric vehicles are now mainstream, and we’ve only just begun to see rising global demand and interest,” said Hertz interim CEO Mark Fields. (Axios, New York Times $, USA Today, NPR, CNBC, Business Insider, Wall Street Journal $, BBC, CNBC, Bloomberg $, The Verge, ABC, Washington Examiner; Commentary: Bloomberg, Liam Denning column $)