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

[Dear_OP]

Dealership will sell whatever that makes money. In North America, it is generally ICE pickups and SUVs. Not to mention it's easier since sales people do not need to be trained on EV tech.

I wonder how are other legacy brands doing? IIRC GM was mandating its dealerships to some sort of EV ready requirements. Loads of dealers threatened to terminate their franchises.
How is Hyundai's model?

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[machefan]

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?

We don’t know the back room specifics but for all we know the ones who bought in now have more allocations across the fleet.

I’m sure they did something to compensate the ones who bought in.

 

[Snakebitten]

We don’t know the back room specifics but for all we know the ones who bought in now have more allocations across the fleet.

I’m sure they did something to compensate the ones who bought in.

That seems very likely.
I have to imagine that the relationship between dealership and manufacturer is far from monolithic, regardless of how the public perceives and the press presents it.

Probably varies from downright adversarial to "we are in this together". And everything in between.

No way would I ever be convinced that all dealerships have the same opinion, strategy, and quantity of goodwill with Ford.

 

[Mach1E]

Car dealers and manufacturers got cocky during Covid shortages.

It’s good to see them adapting and eating some humble pie.

I think this is a smart move to pivot as the market has changed.

 

[Jgg181]

Yep!…what he said?

 

[Jgg181]

We don’t know the back room specifics but for all we know the ones who bought in now have more allocations across the fleet.

I’m sure they did something to compensate the ones who bought in.

Yep!…what he said?

 

[iam-s-Hon]

This seems like a very bad move for customers. I wouldn't want to buy an EV from a dealer only to find out they can't do anything to assist me with it if there's a problem.

This could be said for non-ev models across makers, too. The better dealers will have better customer service and support. And in many cases, that’s where people (who have some options) will gallop to.

 

[phil]

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

I dunno, I kind of figure they have to do something for the loyal dealers who went along with the Model E stuff. Otherwise, they risk undermining their relationships with their best dealers. Sounds like a mess.

 

[phil]

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.

The problem is it won't make $0.01. It will lose $1 Billion. Or more likely $10 Billion.

 

[dbsb3233]

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.

They're not eliminating BEVs, just not expanding as fast as they planned a few years ago. The Mach-E and Lightning and eTransit aren't going anywhere, at least as it stands now.

Farley said they won't build more BEV models until they can ensure profitability on them. He said the (smaller) Gen2 EVs they're planning will be. Time will tell. But the clear message is they have to get costs WAY down. That means smaller and cheaper battery packs. Which are too small for big BEVs, thus the shift to small BEVs for the next wave. Probably also means cheaper materials and fewer features, I would guess. Whatever they can do to get costs way down from what they are now.

Their own battery plants will be open by then too, which will cut costs *some*. But that's not nearly enough on it's own.

 

[VaporTrails]

The problem is it won't make $0.01. It will lose $1 Billion. Or more likely $10 Billion.

They have completed work on some solid motor and inverter components, and are continuing to iterate. I think a vehicle with a less-ambitious ADAS can cut costs quite a bit. LFP battery partnerships, which they have, will almost certainly drive costs down. We shall see. As long as they are building up, it will be difficult to be profitable immediately.

 

[phil]

They have completed work on some solid motor and inverter components, and are continuing to iterate. I think a vehicle with a less-ambitious ADAS can cut costs quite a bit. LFP battery partnerships, which they have, will almost certainly drive costs down. We shall see. As long as they are building up, it will be difficult to be profitable immediately.

I believe they can drive some costs down, but if they're selling a smaller, lower-priced car to get customers in the door, there's just not enough revenue to break even. They'll need to cut costs A LOT, and that will take a long time and a lot of hard work.

 

[ChasingCoral]

The requirement that chargers be installed in urban/suburban areas along the east and west coasts really made little sense. However, DCFC systems really are needed at rural dealers and for most dealers in the flyover states and south. When we traveled across the country and back towing our travel trailer behind our Lightning, there were many routes where we relied upon chargers at car dealerships. None of them were Ford dealers because so few Ford dealers had DCFC systems installed.

Ford needs to find a way to bring DCFC to dealers in areas where they are lacking. The Model e Dealership model failed. It’s time for Ford to come up with a new way to help bring DCFC to these charging deserts.

 

[AKgrampy]

As far as I am concerned this is awesome. Our local dealer opted out essentially because the DCFC investment was ridiculous. They have 2 EV tech’s which are good. We have a single DCFC in town with less than a 3% usage rate. We are getting at least 2 more for a total of 11 chargers in Fairbanks. Obviously we are not the norm but Ford should never have, in my opinion, have laid out a on size fits all requirement. After a dealer sells a certain number vehicles a DCFC on site would be needed most likely for sales and service. For 5 to 10 vehicles a year it is cost prohibitive. Nearest dealer for me was 350 miles away. Looking forward now to the 26MY Mach when my Option contract expires. (Assuming nothing changes by then!)

 

[Bikespace]

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.

Not a single dealership would have installed it without being forced. It's stupid expensive, likely to get a lot cheaper, and now with access to the Tesla network, totally moot. Ford just cut down their best dealers to appease the worst.

I agree that to properly service an EV, the dealership should have DCFC. But they don't, and they won't. My one data point on this: My MME had an L2 charge error (not DCFC). It turned out to be the charge controller module (not the charge port). It took two weeks to diagnose, in part because it didn't throw a code, but in part because the issue only occured when charging above 32 Amps, and only when borrowing my EVSE.

My dealership got it sorted, and has recently paid a ton of money to get DCFC installed (now awaiting some quill and parchment approvals to get turned on by the utility). This dealer could not be bothered to buy a proper EVSE. Not a Ford requirement, so they didn't do it.

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