The local Ford dealer here has put in two chargers-but no where near the effort nor expense of the Chevrolet and Nissan Dealers.
" This time we really mean it" Ford...
- Thread starter UncleDave
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The local Ford dealer here has put in two chargers-but no where near the effort nor expense of the Chevrolet and Nissan Dealers.
GM's committed to spending lots of borrowed money.
I put in 4 levels 2's for the boys half a decade ago.
We've had pretty much every BEV made rotating through our parking lot. (engineers always want the very latest toys)
Nissan gave us chademo for while and are switching to CCS.
I've spent a bunch of time on the mach-e forum and there is clearly a lack of training at an astounding number of dealerships.
This mirrors my own experience with Ford where the comes twice a week.
Im sure Ford is making them commit to full time dedicated personnel if the dealer wants to carry BEV line.
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Heres a pretty decent article on the ask
https://electrek.co/2022/09/14/ford-sets-new-dealers-requirements-in-order-to-sell-evs/
- 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 – by implementing fast chargers at dealers, it helps ensure customers always have somewhere to charge their EV, even if they don’t have their own home to do so
- eCommerce:
- Transparent, non-negotiable pricing
- To be clear, dealerships still set the pricing, that’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
- Transparent, non-negotiable pricing
- 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
https://electrek.co/2022/09/14/ford-sets-new-dealers-requirements-in-order-to-sell-evs/
Elon has been fighting that fight already and there are several states where direct sales are allowed, either with or without certain limitations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_US_dealership_disputes
The issue in many states is not Ford's ability to sell direct - its the fact they already have franchises set up, so they either need to buy them out, settle out of court, or spend a decade in court with the dealers. Its a problem Ford caused themselves, albeit a century ago.
We've been talking about Tesla breaking the franchise model for almost a decade so yes I'm aware of that.
Also aware that the franchise law preclude Ford from selling direct.
But they do not preclude Ford from creating a very strict program their dealers must follow to get the cars.
By Ford creating entirely new business units they can strip these from the rest of their offering and create a differential experience.
So although well likely never be able to buy directly from Ford or Gm or anyone pre Tesla the Manufacturers can create much of the look and feel of doing so. The dealers either play along or get no cars.
It might be enough to tempt the millennials, & zoomers.
Of course Ford ain't the only one. Tesla's direct sales model is a huge advantage, made possible by the Internet.
The dealership sales model was necessary before, but like any product or process; it has a lifecycle. There is little or no value added and the cost is passed on to us.
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