Dealers Supposedly Don't Want to Sell EVs!

[ArthurDOB]

Has anyone seen this article? https://wapo.st/463h9Ot

My dealer was all about EVs when I bought mine. Has anyone else experienced what is presented in this article?

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[Vulnox]

I haven't personally as far as pure EVs, but this wouldn't surprise me even a little bit in many portions of the country. EVs in dealerships have a lot working against them:
1. Salespeople typically have less possible commission, Ford for example with their set invoice/MSRP pricing leaves a lot less to make than selling a high margin F-150 to the right buyer.

2. Salespeople CAN be extremely lazy and aren't interested in learning enough about the tech to properly sell it, and by extension believe that they will have better luck selling a known vehicle. When we were shopping for our C-Max Energi back in 2016, the salesman didn't even know the C-Max had a battery, and tried to steer us towards an Explorer. Better margins, and something he knows he can sell in his sleep. Again, not saying all are lazy, but I have run into it enough to imagine it comes up a lot with EVs. Also they may have personal biases against EVs and just prefer they not sell if they can still sell something else.

3. Dealerships want service money. Most dealerships make more on service, by a significant margin, than new car sales. We are coming up to 10k miles on our MME, no repair service visits, and the car is bugging me to bring it in for "maintenance" which will mainly just be tire rotation. My F-150 on the other hand brings them plenty in oil changes and other fluid checks, some of which the MME has, but not nearly as much. So they might behind the scenes encourage their salespeople to push more ICE vehicles.

Those are just the top of mind items that would impact more dealers. They can afford to do this and still sell some EVs to keep the OEM happy since it isn't expected that most new car sales are EVs. They try to nudge people to the high maintenance ICE vehicles knowing that they will still get people coming in that aren't leaving with anything but an MME or EV6 or whatever.

 

[evfinder]

I personally haven't experienced this problem but have heard of many others who have. People who went to dealerships and the sales person tried really hard to convince them that an EV was not a good fit for them. I was lucky, when I bought my Prius Plug-in I got it through Diane Whitmire at Carson Toyota who had one as her personal car so knew everything about it.

Some dealerships did embrace EVs. Paul Scott, one of the founders of Plug-in America, used to help sell the Leaf at Nissan of Down Town LA. He drove a 2002 RAV4-EV then a Nissan Leaf so could answer all the customer's questions from personal experience.

I think things are getting better, although some dealerships use big mark-ups to discourage purchases. Now, there are dealerships now have sales people who know the cars. At least here in So-Cal. I was still amazed at how many Cadillac dealerships decided to drop the franchise when GM decided to switch the brand to all electric.

 

[Mike G]

Yes. My dealership now sells every MME they get in (stock orders) to other dealerships, or they have Mannheim Auctions come in and sell them for them at a loss just to get rid of them.

Due to several factors, not the least of which is the power grid cannot support them installing a DC fast charger, they did not sign up to be an EV dealer beyond 31 Dec 23.

 

[jgcom]

My organization recently tried to buy an E-transit from a local dealer; some couldn't do it and some dragged out the process without end, so we bought through an affiliate 3000 km away and shipped it. It is becoming clear that in some places the dealers just want the E to go away forever.

They dealers claim they aren't making much money. Then why are there so many dealers? As for the salesperson saying they cannot afford customers' spending so much time with them ... I'm a bit at a loss for words. It has been my experience that the majority of the time I spend in dealer sales departments is defensive maneuvering through their up-sell processes, rather than getting correct answers to my questions. Whose time is being wasted?

 

[Logal727]

Then maybe get rid of dealers. Works great for Tesla.

The article basically boils down to their racket not being tenable anymore.. oh boo hoo.. see ya!

 

[heisnuts]

I know a good percentage of dealers opted in to being Ford EV certified and said they will be willing to spend the money to upgrade their dealerships to be EV certified. I wonder if given the current market for EVs if that agreement changes or if dealers say never mind and opt out of the EV certification program.

 

[Deleted member 16048]

Then maybe get rid of dealers. Works great for Tesla.

The article basically boils down to their racket not being tenable anymore.. oh boo hoo.. see ya!

Yeah I agree here. Back in the day, vehicle manufacturers were predatory towards customers and so "blue laws" were passed to help bring in middlemen to "protect" customers. They then took advantage of the laws and became predatory themselves. Which is where er are now. Any dealership that marks up a brand new vehicle is just greedy. Plain and simple. It's not "market demand" at all. used vehicles have dynamic prices but new vehicles do not. You don't see iPhone prices going through the roof after a new model launches because Apple cannot produce them fast enough. Dealers are doing this to themselves, and I think it's time for them to end.

Others are totally right about some not wanting to sell EVs since they know they won't make money from service anymore on them. Instead of competing and actually giving customers reasons to come in and see them for tire rotation and the minimal service, they choose to try and steer customers to profitable vehicles for them. That's predatory behavior.

As much as I love getting my free rotations, I would actually pay a little bit if there was a great customer experience for me as an EV owner. If they have a nice fancy lounge with free snacks, while I wait, maybe they even fast charge for 15 minutes then wash the vehicle after service is complete. I would pay for a premium experience like that but instead dealers don't care about customers or experience anymore. They only see green.

/rant

Note: Anyone want to start a EV service business? lol

 

[Logal727]

Note: Anyone want to start a EV service business? lol

It will only be a matter of time till manufacturers do this themselves.

 

[AtomicInternet]

As always, it depends on the dealer.

Just recently this dealership was asking how they can appear friendly to EV owners:
https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/ford-dealer-asking-for-ev-input.29644/

 

[luckie]

Then maybe get rid of dealers. Works great for Tesla.

The article basically boils down to their racket not being tenable anymore.. oh boo hoo.. see ya!

Well, as you know, in the US Tesla calls their dealerships Galleries and Service Centers, but the price being fixed certainly makes a big difference. GM's Saturn division did that for a decade or so.

YET of course when dealers are adding mark-ups to high demand low supply luxury vehicles (EVs often fit) everyone wants the price to be *fixed* at the MSRP, but nobody wants to pay sticker price traditionally, when supply is high and demand is low, we feel like we should get a price below sticker.

In the US, in the last decade, there have been folx who refused to buy a Tesla because staff at the Gallery wouldn't participate in negotiations to get a lower price. Even today People walk away, do the normal upset stomp out the door, expecting a Tesla Sales person in the Gallery to say "OK, let's see what we can do." Heck, some are still suspicious that *other* buyers DID get a better price on their Tesla.

 

[dbsb3233]

Has anyone seen this article? https://wapo.st/463h9Ot

My dealer was all about EVs when I bought mine. Has anyone else experienced what is presented in this article?

Car salesmen have been steering buyers toward more profitable models for a century. Nothing new on that front.

A lot of them still don't know much about EVs though.

 

[Ghost Ryder]

Car dealers are like any business. They like to sell what people want to buy. And right now, people do not want to buy EVs. It's hard to convince dealers to invest 500k plus to upgrade their dealership and train their techs if people are not buying their products.

During COVID, dealers were jumping at the chance to sell EVs because everyone wanted one.

 

[Deleted member 16048]

In the US, in the last decade, there have been folx who refused to buy a Tesla because staff at the Gallery wouldn't participate in negotiations to get a lower price. Even today People walk away, do the normal upset stomp out the door, expecting a Tesla Sales person in the Gallery to say "OK, let's see what we can do." Heck, some are still suspicious that *other* buyers DID get a better price on their Tesla.

Yes, but who created that feeling to begin with? Dealers...

We should go back to fixed pricing industry wide and that will help reset expectations and behaviors away from greed.

 

[dbsb3233]

YET of course when dealers are adding mark-ups to high demand low supply luxury vehicles (EVs often fit) everyone wants the price to be *fixed* at the MSRP, but nobody wants to pay sticker price traditionally, when supply is high and demand is low, we feel like we should get a price below sticker.

Exactly. Nobody was saying "I demand you sell it to me for MSRP!" for a Bolt 2 years ago, when Chevy+dealers were stuck having to take $9000 off to get them to move. ?

They only say that for the hot selling vehicles where demand exceeds supply.

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