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

[wareagle1440]

I sold my mach e due to the ineptitude of the dealers as this program was ramping up. I might have considered Ford again if this program had gone through because it essentially forced the dealerships to put skin in the game and therefore actually care. But now that this is dead, I doubt I will be coming back to ford sadly. The dealers were mostly bad before and now they have no incentive whatsoever.

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[kltye]

I'm sure this will get a lot of negative attention but overall I think this is a good move. The requirement to install a DCFC was a pretty big expense for smaller and more rural dealers. But even for bigger dealers, it is a hard pill to swallow. And in some locations, it just didn't make sense. I think it also created a lot of bitterness with the dealerships as well.

IMO, make good EV products that customers want (and at a good price), and the dealers will want to sell them.

I get your sentiment, but I don't know if I agree with it. We've seen more than enough dealers being downright awful when servicing EVs. Even though they're supposed to be "certified" or "trained", they still don't devote enough resources to it. I think investing a lot of money would at least mean they'd have some skin in the game. I would say that maybe loosening up the restrictions at a later date might be good, but it's still too early for most dealers to give EV customers a good experience. I think maybe a modification of your last sentence might be it: Make good EVs that people want at a good price, and customers will travel to dealers that sell them.

As for rural dealers, the dealer I bought mine from in the middle of nowhere Michigan has their DCFC up and running, and the dealer in Green Bay, WI has their up as well - both godsends due to their location. I think Ford could have made it easier financially somehow for them to get installed, but scrapping it altogether is a bad move, I think.

 

[Dear_OP]

Ford is just back pedalling. IIRC there was an article where Ford scaled back on the requirements. Now they totally removed this. Seems pretty inconsistent as far as strategy goes. On the flip side, it needs to move inventory.

My guess is that Ford is preparing "defenses" against the Chinese EV onslaught by saturating sales channels. I echo others' concern that this might exacerbate an already poor dealership EV experience. Then again most legacy brands are pretty bad by comparison to Tesla or Rivian.

...
While the voluntary Model e Program is being discontinued, the experiences that were part of the Program have had a highly beneficial impact on customer satisfaction. Ford recommends that Dealers continue to provide customers with these elevated experiences.

There was a thread here posted not long ago seeking feedback on Ford Dealership experience when it comes to EVs. The majority of the sentiment would disagree with the above.

 

[mkhuffman]

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?

 

[Deleted member 19354]

The dealer where I bought my Mach-e GT last August stopped selling EV‘s this year. Does that mean they can/will start selling them again?

Call
Your service department directly

 

[Kmp14]

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 wondering the same. Lawsuits coming?

 

[ToOldForThis]

I'm sure this will get a lot of negative attention but overall I think this is a good move. The requirement to install a DCFC was a pretty big expense for smaller and more rural dealers. But even for bigger dealers, it is a hard pill to swallow. And in some locations, it just didn't make sense. I think it also created a lot of bitterness with the dealerships as well.

Unfortunately, this move will likely create even more bitterness for some dealers - all the dealers that did invest thousands of dollars to meet the requirements, only to now find out they didn't need to do that.
While I agree with opening up inventory and dealer availability to purchase the vehicles, I don't think this move will really help the current problems with dealers only having 1 (or sometimes no) certified EV mechanics. My local certified EV dealer had to cancel my appointment last week, because "we don't have any certified mechanics available for your appointment". This was after having the appointment scheduled for over 2 weeks. I got a text message 22 hours before the scheduled appointment time telling don't bother to show up.

 

[phil]

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,

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

 

[aclosedmind]

I mean, dealers have been pretty awful about everything always forever. There are good ones of course, but I think EV or no EV, program or no program, dealers are generally more awful than not.

These things seem to be almost universally true (with some bright spot positive exceptions):

1. Dealer salespeople follow a silly old sales script from 60 years ago that they refuse to break. Non-volume dealers look to make every dollar on every sale to an extreme, ridiculous, and self defeating sense. Volume dealers tend to be better about this as a rule but still.

2. Dealers HATE doing warranty work under any circumstances. The factory tells them how much time they'll be compensated for and at what cost, which means far less labor profit vs non warranty work.

3. If theres a problem, dealers tell you to F off or go talk to Ford. When you talk to Ford, they tell you to talk to a dealer.

I don't want to diminish that there are GOOD dealers who are great members of the community and do lots of good stuff, but the above are pretty much truisms imo

 

[bigredx86]

This is back pedaling but now dealers can’t use ford as an excuse as to why they “can’t/won’t” service an EV, it’s now just them being a waste.

It’s been a sad endeavor when half your dealers don’t want to play ball, so they won’t then service your EVs for people in emergencies.

I am hopeful this will help fokes find dealers that don’t have months of lead time for EV services.

 

[Sikkun]

who would want to go to a Ford dealer to charge? No thanks. But in a hot market, dealers could return to price gauging I suppose. Not much of an issue at the moment.

Depends.

My dealership is a pull off from the interstate, so on a road trip I’d be charging in under a couple minutes, grab some free drinks from the lobby and go to the bathroom before getting back in the road.

I believe there is a good number of dealers in a similar location that wouldn’t be a bad charge stop.

 

[Mike G]

Was having an discussion about this yesterday. A couple of things came out of that....now Ford can send stock EVs (not retail orders) to dealers who opted out....regardless of whether it's an active EV market at that location or not. The other thing I found interesting is that at one of the largest dealers in the area, they are no longer servicing EVs (anecdotal, not confirmed by me)...and apparently have let EV tech certifications lapse...intentionally. A lot of the tasks now specifically state the level of certification required to perform them....letting EV certs lapse means you don't have to deal with unprofitable EV labor rates and very little post-sales upsales.

 

[Snakebitten]

Ford sucks if they try to raise the bar on dealership EV certification/qualification.

Ford sucks if they lower the bar on dealership EV certification/qualification.

Ford is an automotive manufacturer.
I must be of the opinion they are pretty good at it based on the vehicles I own. ??

It's amazing how much more than just manufacturing automobiles they have to deal with.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

Was having an discussion about this yesterday. A couple of things came out of that....now Ford can send stock EVs (not retail orders) to dealers who opted out....regardless of whether it's an active EV market at that location or not. The other thing I found interesting is that at one of the largest dealers in the area, they are no longer servicing EVs (anecdotal, not confirmed by me)...and apparently have let EV tech certifications lapse...intentionally. A lot of the tasks now specifically state the level of certification required to perform them....letting EV certs lapse means you don't have to deal with unprofitable EV labor rates and very little post-sales upsales.

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

 

[Snakebitten]

That would suggest that a dealership would never install a DCFC unless they were required to.
Would there never be a dealership that sincerely desired to sell and service EV's, that also felt owning a DCFC was a legitimate part of the equation?

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