Dealerships don’t want to sell EVs
Dealerships don’t want to sell EVs
This is just a rant… maybe a discussion starter
Margins on 2nd hand and new electric cars are thin, gone are the days where you could get 25% off a new car, and thin margins mean lower commission.
Servicing costs are minimal so no kickbacks for selling the servicing plans.
People are wise to paint protection and alloy wheel cover that cost more than a refurb.
EV buyers tend to make better decisions and are more likely to be cash buyers or finance elsewhere, so no kickback for selling a finance plan.
Manufacturers still selling higher margin hybrid and ICE vehicles mean they are the real target for salespeople.
Manufacturers also want to shift their ICE inventories and new products so they are still pushing the FUD on electric, and myths like “EVs will be obsolete once Hydrogen cars come out, you may as well get an ICE car in the meantime.”
I’ve had a really bad customer experiences at Toyota, Honda and now Kia dealerships.
I know people will suggest the Tesla online sales model, but Musk is just ruining the brand to the point where I can’t buy or recommend one.
So now I’m going to do all my own research, find the exact car I want, and contact the dealer/seller directly while avoiding as much interaction as possible.
I think you need to look into how dealer pricing works, because you're making a lot of common incorrect assumptions. The dealer's margin on a new vehicle is, like 2%. They make a third of their revenue from accessories, a third or more from repair work, and the rest from financing finders fees.
You got 25% off a car because either it was used, or the manufacturer kicked in incentives. Not because a dealer could afford to give you 25% off.
Also, LMAO on hydrogen.
However the dealer achieved it, as a customer when I bought my car 8 years ago I ordered the spec I wanted and a price came up, I said I wanted it at a price the was 25% lower (I had found 24% discounts online) and as I was walking out the building they stopped me and agreed.
For new model cars discounts from car brokers are only around 3% on the cars I’ve looked at.
You're talking 25% off MSRP, or worse a locally adjusted market price which isn't the price people should pay. It's a suggested price. You should be paying invoice price plus a margin for dealer profit. It would really help for people to know how products sell and what the various prices are, because not knowing these things leads to mistakes like thinking you got an amazing deal by discounting MSRP or even a local market price rather than moving upward from invoice price.
One trick when buying any car is to arrange financing ahead of time.
Find the car. Negotiate a price. Get a Buyers Order. It will have all the fees and BS on it because of what happens next. Take the Buyers Order to the credit union. CU writes them a check, and they don't have an opportunity to add more fluff, or sell you financing.
You can often get pre-approved for a car loan up to a certain amount, and the bank will provide you a check that you can fill out up to that specified amount and make payable to the dealer. Basically, you can show up to the dealer pre-financed by a third party, do the deal, drive away, no need to make an extra trip out and back.
Or is it that the bank will deposit the money in your account, then you write the check from there, and return the vehicle purchase details to the bank within a certain time frame? I know we've done this a couple of times, but I forget exactly how the process plays out.
Depends on the dealership. I went in and asked if I could get additional money off the car for using their financing. They say yes they gave a $1,000 credit.
I then asked how many payments did I need to make for them to get their full incentive for the loan. They said 6 months. I asked if I could pay it off after that, and they said sure, they'd have their kickback from the bank.
And that's what we did. It was a pretty frank conversation with the dealer, they were cool, we were cool.
You're more likely to get a better deal if you use their financing since they make money on that too, and they usually have competitive rates if you have good credit.
EVs will be obsolete once Hydrogen cars come out
follow up question, and when would those come out?
Follow up comment: Even if they do come out and we're somehow green, dealerships won't sell them either. Oil money speaks pretty loud
Back when I was considering a Ford Lightning, I went to a local Ford dealership and the salesman came out like they do. He asked what I was looking for and I said I just wanted to see the Lightnings.
He literally said "you know we're an oil and gas country, right?"
Even if I was fully planning on buying that day, there's no way I would have bought from that guy.
At one point, he also said something along the lines of "they don't give us any incentive to push these."
Ah well that is one of the reasons why big oil has invested so much in hydrogen, the way hydrogen is made right now is by refining it from natural gas using massive amounts of electricity which oil companies can generate for themselves. This hydrogen is then sold along with the same 0.1% of hydrogen which is electrolysed from water using solar and wind power and greenwashes the remaining 99.9% masking the fact you would have been better off just refining crude oil into diesel, or burning puppies and kittens in a steam engine.
I did ask… apparently “Toyota have had some big breakthroughs and they should be out in a couple of years, with instant refuelling!”
I believe my reply was “that’s absolute bullshit”
Toyota has had no plan to move on from ICE engines from what I have read. I don't know why they spend the little money they do, on research. Maybe so they can make claims like the above
More importantly, when will the hydrogen infrastructure be coming out?
Oh my friend, it’s already here! There are 3 hydrogen filling stations in a 1000 mile radius of which at least one is operational on average.
Toyota Mirai
At least in Europe, both Volvo and Polestar sell online at «fixed» prices.
Polestar 2 is in between Model 3 and Y, size wise and releasing 3 and 4 these days. Volvo has options from the EX30 to EX90.
I heard that from a salesman perspective that EVs are harder to sell, because the customers tend to know less and have more questions. And there is not really an incentive for salespeople to sell more EVs.
A friend of mine who works in a Mercedes service department has a fleet of electric vehicles to loan out during repairs. Problem is, this being the US, nobody wants them. So he sits on a bunch of luxury EVs because people would rather wait for ICE cars to become available. You seriously can’t live with an electric Mercedes for a week? Maybe learn a little about it? Nope.
It appears that it is very hard to change peoples habits.
That’s another good point, fewer questions on ICE cars and fewer things for the salesperson to learn.
I used to be a huge Toyota fan. I've been driving a 3rd hand 2011 Nissan Leaf to work as our secondary car for a number of years and an old Prius for longer trips. We really need a new car to replace the Leaf so that I can drive more than 35 miles. Toyota's bullshit statements on electric cars turned me off to ever buy one again. I've been in a search for months and have noticed that traditional manufacturer dealerships just don't care about electric cars for the reasons you state. I've decided to go with companies that have at least 2 released electric cars. That shows a level of choice and commitment.
I'd look at in terms of compliance car, or all in.
VW, Hyundai/Kia, GM, Ford and Volvo are all doing good work with EVs. They're selling a lot of vehicles, have multiple well received models with medium to great reviews, and they're building vehicles from the ground up to take advantage of EV perks.
Compare that to Toyota, who created one pure EV, the bz4x, that has a crappy charging speed and range and a high price, and for the first several years, received no promotion or ads. For some reason, they're advertising it a lot now, but it's still a shit car compared to what else you can get for the same price. I would throw fiat, Audi, BMW, Honda all in that boat too. You're much better off going with someone that created a vehicle they actually want to sell lots of.
I did the same and got a Ford Mach E. Upgrading from my 2013 Corolla that still drives like its never going to die. The lobbying from Toyota is terrible and now they are far too behind in EVs to take them seriously
I assume you are not from Thailand.
https://electrek.co/2024/07/03/byds-10k-ev-price-cuts-spark-backlash-thailand/
Seriously, it's like car companies want China to lead the car market
why are the customers complaining about discounted prices? wouldn't lower prices on EVs and making them more affordable to more people be a good thing?
People who already bought them are upset they paid the early adopter tax.
On one hand, I get upset when a game I just bought goes on sale, on the other hand, you lose money the second you drive out of the dealership.