notaek

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https://electrek.co/2022/09/14/ford-sets-new-dealers-requirements-in-order-to-sell-evs/

Five new pillars for Ford dealers to sell EVs
With these new dealer commitments, Ford is laying the foundation for a bright future in EV sales, not only in retail, but online as well. In a sit down with a small group of media yesterday, Ford executives from all three divisions, as well as CEO Jim Farley, presented the future of Model e dealerships, built upon five pillars. He explained:

Weā€™re betting on the dealers, weā€™re not going to go direct. But we need to specialize. We do that with unique standards.

Here they are:
  • Training:
    • Specialized EV teams that are knowledgeable across sales and ownership
    • EV University to train dealers and subsequently, customers
  • Charging:
    • Back-of-house charging infrastructure to support sales, maintenance, and care
    • Public DC fast chargers available on Blue Oval Network (see more below)
    • 96% of the US population lives within 20 miles of a Ford dealer, 85% live within ten miles ā€“ by implementing fast chargers at dealers, it helps ensure customers always have somewhere to charge their EV, even if they donā€™t have their own home to do so
  • eCommerce:
    • Transparent, non-negotiable pricing
      • To be clear, dealerships still set the pricing, thatā€™s the law. However, Ford wants pricing to be consistent and fair for its customers and said it will be monitoring the process from entry to exit to ensure that the customer signs on the dotted line for the same price as originally promised on day one.
      • Ford says it will be surveying customers post sale and monitoring the consistency of prices across different customers at each dealer
    • Opportunity for the greatest customer satisfaction
    • Ford told us it saw online orders jump from 6% to 50% in one year
  • Physical Experiences:
    • Remote delivery available to all Model e customers
    • Pickup and delivery offered with a loaner to all Model e customers
  • Digital Experiences:
    • Software and subscription opportunities available
    • Ford Pass perks
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EELinneman

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I'm hoping that the dealers can set requirements for Ford too. Like tracking numbers on parts, accountability for communications that are clear and timely, more visibility to delivery of cars....
 


Maquis

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Thats awesome! I wish Ford luck on this. I am not 100% sure DCFC is necessary or maybe that's just my California mindset.
Iā€™ve travelled to many places that currently have no DCFC. Most all of them have a Ford dealer. This could be a big plus in a lot of places.
 

methorian

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Thats awesome! I wish Ford luck on this. I am not 100% sure DCFC is necessary or maybe that's just my California mindset.
I'd imagine it won't have high power requirements - 50kW DC charger or the like. It makes sense to me. Not only allow customers access which could be a lifesaver in rural areas, but also easier for inevitable tows that come in with 0% SoC. Also allows dealership to quickly get a car up to 50% when customer brings it in at 5% for service/etc.

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw a new DCFC at my local Hyundai dealer. Sales person said they had to install it to sell Ioniq 5's. They were already enjoying it saying that it made topping up test models much faster (I think a lot of test drives in their Ioniq 5/etc).
 

johnmark

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This is great news all around. I'm curious what dealerships think about it. I think it can only help, but it will prevent price gouging, which uh, I'm sure some dealers won't be happy about. I didn't see the timeline for rollout - how long does it take to install a DC charger?
 

ShaggySS

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just wow, have you ever been outside of California with your EV?
Nope. šŸ˜‚ I live in my little bubble. Still haven't driven more than 150 away from my house yet, but am sure when I do my tune will likely change. Don't ruin it, let me live in my fantasy world for a little while longer.
 

Logal727

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This is all well and good, but it's still voluntary for a dealership to learn anything about EVs, they need to force a requirement to keep the license.
 

johnmark

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This is all well and good, but it's still voluntary for a dealership to learn anything about EVs, they need to force a requirement to keep the license.
I hear you, but if I have a dealership in Harrison Arkansas, I'm going to sideeye corporate if they force me to invest 500k in a certification that won't yield results for a couple of years.
 

Vulnox

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Yeah it is up to the dealership, but it's clear EVs are important and popular, and Ford will only be introducing more models. The dealership management team would be stupid to just ignore those that don't do the training or get good survey results.

We had a back and forth on the DCFC at dealers and many said they didn't see the point, but I argue it is important to improving customer usability, even in the short term, and with some creativity it can be beneficial to the dealership if they offer nice waiting areas and snacks/drinks, which at least from a waiting area perspective is more than you will get from a busy Walmart parking lot.

I agree, I think most dealers will just focus on 50kW chargers, and that is totally fine for me. I would mainly just use it when in some corridors where EA is basically nonexistent and taking an alternate route to be near other EA or EVGo stations adds significant time to the drive. 50kW would be plenty for a 20 minute safety charge to get to most destinations or back on a normal route that has an EA station.
 

Blue highway

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Nope. šŸ˜‚ I live in my little bubble. Still haven't driven more than 150 away from my house yet, but am sure when I do my tune will likely change. Don't ruin it, let me live in my fantasy world for a little while longer.
On the contrary, I wish the rest of the country had the density of DCFC that Cali has. A good bit of the midwest is about where Cali was in 2012 in terms of charging. 220v is it. Plan a trip in ABRP to south eastern Oregon, or the UP of Michigan using DCFC... it's eye opening.
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