How is this car not selling better?

[Blue highway]

I don't think the sales people at the dealership try to sell electric.

I dropped my MME off to get the HVBJB recall and a few other CSP done this morning. While waiting for someone to help, one of the service managers asked me if I like it.

I explained that it was the best car I had owned. He asked about range and seemed shocked I was satisfied. He then asked about charging cost and I explained how much I saved by charging at home and that road trips were roughly the same as gas.

He got visible frustrated and explained that no one that had bought a Lightning at the dealership was happy with their purchase and walked off.

This was at a more rural Ford dealership on the very outskirts of Metro Atlanta. The lot has almost 500 F-150 available, 550 F-250, and 230 Explorer or Expedition. I don't think their focus is on selling MME or Lightning.

This calls for a RANT!

To this sales guy, EVs are an existential threat. Not just to their business, but to their identity.

• Rivian and Tesla sell lifestyle vehicles... that can sorta do truck stuff. and sell lots of them.
• Ford sells an Electric F-150... that does practical truck stuff but not the emotional truck stuff... not so many are sold.
  • they aren't lifted,
  • they don't have chrome wheels,
  • they don't make lots of noise
  • they don't make smoke

I suspect, the market shift for lifestyle vehicles will be 5-10 years faster than for trucks... A lot of people have their identity tied up in their truck... They don't need one to tow, or haul things but the image is what matters to them. And, crudely what they value is "big" and "high" "loud" because of the image it portrays, not for practical "doing truck stuff" reasons. look in the bed of most trucks... no scratches... nothing has been in there.

• The weight of trucks has increased by 32% since 1990

• The height of a pickup truck front hood has grown by an average of more than 11% since 2000

These trends aren't for practical reasons... it's because people want this.

end of RANT

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[Sikkun]

I don't think the sales people at the dealership try to sell electric.

I dropped my MME off to get the HVBJB recall and a few other CSP done this morning. While waiting for someone to help, one of the service managers asked me if I like it.

I explained that it was the best car I had owned. He asked about range and seemed shocked I was satisfied. He then asked about charging cost and I explained how much I saved by charging at home and that road trips were roughly the same as gas.

He got visible frustrated and explained that no one that had bought a Lightning at the dealership was happy with their purchase and walked off.

This was at a more rural Ford dealership on the very outskirts of Metro Atlanta. The lot has almost 500 F-150 available, 550 F-250, and 230 Explorer or Expedition. I don't think their focus is on selling MME or Lightning.

Some people let their personal biases override their business sense.

 

[DennisD]

Some people let their personal biases override their business sense.

I think many are compensating for their own "short" comings and yes, you are correct. ?

 

[RockinVs]

Tesla is a tech company. Just look at their stock. Way over valued for what they actually do. It also took many years for them to become profitable. (If they even are, they aren't exactly transparent about anything) They still have fit and finish issues. Some people have hard times fixing basic things on them.
I remember reading about simple things like getting the seats for the model 3 right. Musk just didn't like what he could find so he decided to make them in house which delayed things even more. Might have worked out in the long run, but this was when they were claiming they would be pumping out 250,000 vehicles and they weren't.

I also feel range anxiety. Not in the every day that is 90 percent of my travels. Only when traveling to my parents for the day (rural MN) and there is 1 charging station on the way. (I don't count the tesla charger because i still don't have an adapter) Do I trust that it will be open or working? Imagine only 1 gas station on a day trip. That is probably the biggest reason for lack of EV adoption... besides the price. Not sure why gas stations haven't added even just a couple lv3 spots for people.

 

[Sikkun]

Not sure why gas stations haven't added even just a couple lv3 spots for people.

Sheetz has added a lot of chargers to their stations along the interstate. BP and some others have been also. At least in my travels NE to SE there is actually a pretty large number of chargers to choose from.

 

[Gerbear]

I don't think the sales people at the dealership try to sell electric.

I dropped my MME off to get the HVBJB recall and a few other CSP done this morning. While waiting for someone to help, one of the service managers asked me if I like it.

I explained that it was the best car I had owned. He asked about range and seemed shocked I was satisfied. He then asked about charging cost and I explained how much I saved by charging at home and that road trips were roughly the same as gas.

He got visible frustrated and explained that no one that had bought a Lightning at the dealership was happy with their purchase and walked off.

This was at a more rural Ford dealership on the very outskirts of Metro Atlanta. The lot has almost 500 F-150 available, 550 F-250, and 230 Explorer or Expedition. I don't think their focus is on selling MME or Lightning.

Our sales rep was great but pretty limited on EV product knowledge. They are a bit of a volume dealer so sales numbers come before detailed product knowledge.

 

[dbsb3233]

Not sure why gas stations haven't added even just a couple lv3 spots for people.

Because it's very expensive, and charging revenue is relatively small. A gas pump can handle 20 $30 transactions per hour. A DCFC charger can handle 2 $30 transactions per hour.

Some travel plazas do add chargers, but they're usually high volume stations that make the profits from their restaurants and stores.

 

[BlackOnGray]

Spotted this in town today…glad we haven’t had a problem with either of our Mach e!

 

[Jgg181]

We love to hear that, Scott! We hope you continue to enjoy your Mach-E!

???

 

[SpeedRacer72]

An under-appreciated factor is simply that EVs are where automobiles were in 1908; a new, disruptive technology that is only at the beginning of broader consumer acceptance. And like all new technologies, it will follow a cost-reduction curve that eventually make them more affordable but for now are appealing mostly to more affluent buyers and early adopters. I chose to lease mine not because of the greatly reduced monthly payment but because I’m sure that at the end of my three year lease I won’t want to keep it, rather; rapid advancements in features and technology will have made it practically obsolete. for example, my 2024 lacks a heat pump that will be standard on all 2025s. This last factor also makes first-time buyers hesitant to commit.
Add to this the fact that the most practical way to own an EV is by having a level 2 charger at your home. For many people, this adds a non-trivial cost to the price of the car. Lastly, the mis-information machine is hard at work spreading lies about EV plummeting sales, battery life and fires, range anxiety and anything else they can think of to confuse and deter first-time buyers from making the switch. There is a famous ‘S-Curve’ that plots adoption of all new technologies. We are still in the first, flat-ish portion of that curve, and are within three years (IMHO) of reaching the inflection point where it really takes off.

You are not the first one to excuse Ford's bad performance by calling this "new technology"
However, it should be pointed out this is not new technology. It may be new to Ford, but Tesla has been making EV's for over 10 years.
All the known issue with EV's was there freely available to learn from.
There is no excuse to release a product that has so many flaws, except as noted by me & others, the bloat that exists at Ford is really hampering their performance.
Ford's performance in the EV sphere is on par with new manufacturers such as Rivian & Lucid.
The one thing that Ford should have, compared to newcomers like Rivian & Lucid, is the engineering & manufacturing experience to build a superior vehicle.
Yet, Ford so far has been unable to leverage that experience to build a Tesla killer. Instead, it appears they are building Ford killers.

 

[SpeedRacer72]

We love to hear that, Scott! We hope you continue to enjoy your Mach-E!

Once again

 

[Dear_OP]

There was another thread about posting positive experiences with the MME. @Ford Motor Company responded with a few posts.
However it disappeared as soon as others responded with some reality checks and nagging issues. ?

 

[azerik]

i did my part bought one last month.

Welcome to Squid Game!
May the odds be ever in your favor. (If you bought 24 or newer, they are!)

 

[leadfoot_mf]

Welcome to Squid Game!
May the odds be ever in your favor. (If you bought 24 or newer, they are!)

yes brand new 2024 gt grabber blue

 

[RockinVs]

Because it's very expensive, and charging revenue is relatively small. A gas pump can handle 20 $30 transactions per hour. A DCFC charger can handle 2 $30 transactions per hour.

Some travel plazas do add chargers, but they're usually high volume stations that make the profits from their restaurants and stores.

Gas stations make very little off gas. They make most of the profits off the other stuff they sell. EVs take longer to charge so the people will probably go inside. I never go inside filling up my ICE vehicles. I just pay at the pump. I get that not all of them have the room, but the big ones off main highways usually do. I wish more would have chargers.

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