FastCompany:
In 2016, the Sierra Club sent volunteers to more than 300 dealerships around the country to record their experience shopping for an electric vehicle. The results were dismaying, to say the least. More than 1 in 5 Ford and Chevy dealers had failed to charge an EV so it could be taken for a test drive. Only around half of salespeople explained how to fuel a plug-in vehicle, and only a third discussed the tax credits available to buyers.
Researchers further explained that EVs need less maintenance than conventional cars, which puts a dent in the dealer’s bottom line.
There’s plenty of blame to go around as to why EVs are not more popular but with dealerships being some of the frontline troops when it comes to first information and then sales, they take on a good percentage of the responsibility for the lack of sales.
Auto dealerships belong in the same category as sidewalk shell games and Old West snake-oil pitchmen. “Let me go talk to my manager,” indeed.
Here in Canada there’s a pretty stark contrast between different parts of the country. For example, in Ontario, most car dealerships don’t support EVs, don’t want to support EVs, and will do almost anything in their power to avoid selling EVs, but if you cross the border into Québec nearly every dealership supports EVs and will gladly get you the EV you want and all the help you need. More places need to be like Québec in this scenario.
That, or car dealers just need to cater to what their customers desire.
The challenge is that their model is based on the older paradigm – sell vehicles at a slim margin, make it up in the service department. That works because fossil fuel vehicles need service even if it’s just routine maintenance. EVs mostly don’t.
Asking them to switch and enthusiastically sell vehicles that aren’t going to bring in that post-sale revenue is asking them to hurt their business. I think we will need to accept that dealers need to make higher margins on EVs for it to make sense for them.
Of course, some are just staffed by people who don’t like EVs and think real cars are gas guzzling, loud things.
I just bought a new car and both test drives I did the car was on empty. The first time we actually had to go to the gas station and fill it before we went out on the test drive. The second time we checked five or six cars to find one that wasn’t completely empty. This may be less about EV cars and more about the level of professionalism (lack there of) in the car sales industry.