Bears Circle the Car Rental Sector

Short sellers are adding pressure across auto-related names this week, with rental stocks and struggling EV makers drawing the most attention.

Hertz remains one of the most shorted stocks on the market. Its short interest hit 73.2% of free float as of 3 November. Cost to borrow stands at 164%, meaning bears are paying a steep price to hold that position. Zero shares are available to borrow, so new short positions are essentially impossible to open.

Wolfspeed sits even higher at 88% short interest. The EV semiconductor firm has lost nearly 8% over the past three months. With shares close to all-time lows and negative EPS momentum, shorts show no sign of retreating.

Lucid Group carries 65.9% short interest. The stock is down 61% over three months. Cost to borrow has risen to 15.2%, and availability is near zero at 1.4%.

The week's biggest short build-up was in Braveheart Bio. Its SI jumped from 36.5% to 42.7% of free float in just seven days. PROG Holdings added 3.5 percentage points, reaching 12.1%.

Polestar reports earnings Thursday. ORTEX alt data shows Dutch car registrations running 68% below the same quarter last year. Short interest is modest at 3.8%, but cost to borrow is 123%. That signals high demand from bears ahead of the print.

On the covering side, Sabre Corporation saw shorts cut by 2.9 points to 7.8%. Norwegian Cruise Line dropped 2.1 points to 17.3%, a sign that some bears are stepping back.

GameStop and AMC Entertainment both remain lightly shorted at 8.6% and 5.6% respectively. The meme-era squeeze potential has largely faded for both names. AMC posted its Q3 2026 earnings call transcript overnight.