Ford cancels Model e Dealer Program, letting all US retailers sell EVs

[Spock151]

Yup. I’d expect to see more places selling EVs and fewer places servicing them.

I sure hope this announcement is followed up by Ford announcing Ford EV branded service centers... The technology adoption by dealers is too slow and too many are ill prepared for helping Ford succeed on EVs.

Sponsored

 

[Shayne]

Bet the dealers that installed DCFC and suffered the cost are kicking themselves now. I guess with no requirements for them to have them now they can charge for charging and recoup their investment eventually?

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

Bet the dealers that installed DCFC and suffered the cost are kicking themselves now. I guess with no requirements for them to have them now they can charge for charging and recoup their investment eventually?

Theoretically I suppose. The unspoken part about DCFC is that it’s pretty much a sure fire way to make a small fortune. Start with a large fortune and “invest” in DCFC stations.

 

[Snakebitten]

A sincerely dedicated to the future dealership would want/need a DCFC.

Or put another way, I'm convinced that there are/would be Ford dealerships with DCFC capability regardless of Ford's effort to convince them it's a necessity.

 

[Shayne]

Theoretically I suppose. The unspoken part about DCFC is that it’s pretty much a sure fire way to make a small fortune. Start with a large fortune and “invest” in DCFC stations.

Agree if you can do it right the market is currently still wide open and EV's are coming. Need money to make money.

A sincerely dedicated to the future dealership would want/need a DCFC.

Or put another way, I'm convinced that there are/would be Ford dealerships with DCFC capability regardless of Ford's effort to convince them it's a necessity.

They will make sense in the long run but maybe a bit early right now.

 

[RickMachE]

Wow. That's a major step back for Ford. Like bigtime, we screwed up step.

 

[VaporTrails]

Well, this must be pretty humiliating for the geniuses who rammed through this foolish program just a few months ago. Makes it obvious how little Ford understands its own market. At least they were smart enough to eventually figure out they were on the wrong track, and flexible enough to give it up and start over. So, I'll give them credit for that. But wow, they are looking very clueless these days. Like a deer in the headlights. They better get their act together soon if they want to survive as a major manufacturer for another century.

They read the room wrong almost a year before this decision and implemented it anyway. In a different reality where US was bought into electrification, maybe this heavy-handed move would have played better. They were trying to get the local dealers to be MORE palatable than Tesla’s direct sales model, because they really could not make that leap to direct sales due to a century of regulations with state and local governments. From my perspective, the L3 chargers were a deal-breaker. Even Mercedes is not doing that. They absolutely should have been more innovative on that front. I do applaud them for moving on from that bad decision. Just like NACS, they did not stick with CCS charging network that is not working.

The next move here is a small car of some kind. Even if it makes $.01, not having a car in the EV form eliminates a lot of customers. You won’t upsell a customer to an SUV/CUV if you can’t get them on the lot to begin with.

 

[Mach-Lee]

This is a huge letdown. Three years of slow progress on improving the EV customer experience basically down the drain. Regular Ford dealers are not equipped to do EVs the right way, it has to be opt-in with standards. There are no requirements in place until March 2025 for regular dealers, so customer experience will continue to suffer until then. Enforcement of basic requirements (like having a NEMA outlet to test EVSEs) keeps getting pushed back endlessly.

I still read about plenty of horrible dealership experiences on here (due to poor training and familiarization), I hate to think things are going to be worse now as dealers with even less experience will be allowed to sell EVs before meeting any requirements. It should be fundamental that you do not sell what you cannot service.

They should have just dropped the DC charger requirement but kept everything else about Model e Certified.

If I was a dealer that spent a million dollars to actually install the DC chargers, l'd be furious right now because that investment was arguably a total waste. This proves that dealers can win by being stubborn, ignoring mandates, and complaining about it until Ford corporate gives in. Ultimately Ford is beholden to its dealers, not its customers. Which is sad because there are a lot of Ford employees that have worked tirelessly to improve things for EV customers, this is a slap in the face to them too.

 

[Sikkun]

The next move here is a small car of some kind.

US manufactures: What is a car? What is small?

You mean we need an EV F350 and a Hummer right?

 

[VaporTrails]

US manufactures: What is a car? What is small?

You mean we need an EV F350 and a Hummer right?

And I will note my 90’s garage is not Super-Sized. The 90’s Integra fit great. The MME is a little tight.

 

[luckie]

Get rid of dealers, direct sale (hey we can all get screwed on price instead of variable levels of being screwed).

Focus on EV service.

I can dream.

Well direct sale HAS actually been an option since around February. Originally you could “order online“ but more recently you could pay online.

 

[Sikkun]

And I will note my 90’s garage is not Super-Sized. The 90’s Integra fit great. The MME is a little tight.

I really wanted a car, the Mach E drives car like enough for me. But sitting in the garage next to my wife’s Edge….yeah, not a lot of size difference.

 

[azerik]

Yup. I’d expect to see more places selling EVs and fewer places servicing them.

That'll really help drive adoption this year and maybe next (not to mention the soon to be discounts on all these force fed EV's, which will help tank our current 'value' that much more), but it's going to be a nail in the EV coffin and will help spread lies and mistrust even faster (which again will help tank what's left of 'value' that much further down because no one will buy a car you can't get serviced, and surely not a used one.).

 

[Guss-E 2021]

Personally I think if you learn something isn't working well, and you keep doing it, it is a much bigger problem than adapting and changing direction. Obviously those of us who are not Ford employees have very limited insight into why this decision was made, but I did think it was a little heavy handed to treat the dealer network the way they did it before.

The question I have is: what about the dealers that spent possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars to meet the previous EV mandates, including building DCFC stations? Are they to be reimbursed, and what is the payoff of that investment now that it is not required from their Ford dealer competitors?

I was waiting for someone to bring up "but we already invested?!!". That's my dealership. The DCFCs are just going in there. Can dealers tap into NEVI funds?

The dealer near my house (where I made my purchase) and the dealership near my office, both of which are installing DCFCs, are also both in rather good locations for charging. Both are located with in a few hundred feet of highways and the dealership near home is across the street from a grocery store and salon.

It will be interesting to see how things shake out.

 

[mkhuffman]

Sure. Just another $billion or two on top of Ford's already enormous EV losses. Why would anyone think that's a problem?

Yeah, I agree. I seriously doubt Ford will do anything to help the dealers who invested under pressure from Ford.

Sponsored