Dealers Are Preventing Ford From Competing With Tesla

[RV_]

Investors need to know. It's not just Ford. Another dealer disincentive is the fact that they won't make much money in service because there is little maintenance with EVs. I drive a Tesla Model Y and have had it since last year.

GM has ginned up battery partnerships and production but with LG whose battery packs and design of the Bolt (LG Built them, they were shipped as modules to the GM Orion plant and assembled there) LG has been developing production of their batteries for GM and after the Bolt/LG debacle I'd be hesitant to invest in their EV efforts as a car buyer or investor.

But as we proceed to the next phase of transportation I am seeing mistakes like these. I call them Stealerships and refused to buy new my whole life because of their sales model, poor quality repairs, and high cost of maintenance.

Excerpt:

"I read an article by Jalopnik which echoes what I’ve been saying for some time now. If Ford, or any legacy automaker for that matter, really wants to compete with Tesla, the dealers need to get out of the way. I’ve written about this extensively. For example, in Connecticut, a local paper, The Day, published an opinion piece basically begging Tesla to play by their rules. By “their,” I mean dealerships’. Don’t lobby to make direct sales to customers legal, don’t force dealerships to compete for their business without lifting a finger.

In my interview/podcast with Connecticut State Senator Will Haskell, he said something that kind of led me to the realization of exactly why dealerships don’t want to compete with Tesla. Dealerships have been the only way you could purchase a new car for decades. Tesla is forcing them to change, but instead, they are fighting that.

I’ve also touched upon the dealership experience — not my own, but those of others. And this is the focus of the Jalopnik article, which stated, “It’s one thing to have a product that competes with Tesla, it’s another to have the sales experience. And Ford’s old dealership model isn’t helping.”

The article explained that Ford is serious about EVs and adding more to its lineup, but that its approach to actually selling them is leaving customers frustrated and looking elsewhere for their EVs. The author pointed out that the first issue is that Ford has moved to what it calls e-invoice pricing, which “means that the invoice price (or dealer cost) and MSRP are identical.” The author explained further: “Usually dealer invoice pricing is lower, allowing dealers to offer deals below MSRP, which just isn’t as clean or simple to a consumer, who may rather want to just pay what the car costs instead of worrying about getting the best deal. Whether Ford will admit it or not, with this ‘e-invoice’ pricing, it seems to be taking a page from Tesla’s playbook where everyone pays the same price for a car. If you buy a Tesla, the price online is what you pay. No games, no dealer nonsense. Except, despite Ford’s ‘e-invoice’ pricing, dealers can play games and markup cars well over the MSRP.”

The author even has his own dealer story, kind of. Having assisted with several Mach-E deals for numerous customers in different states, he’s seen upwards of $10,000 over the sticker price.

The author shared a screenshot of a tweet from Ford’s Mike Levine quote tweeting Ross Gerber, a friend of mine, who was complaining about poor dealer practices — dealers selling Mach-Es well above MSRP. The author reached out to Mr. Levine but never got a response. However, Emma Berg, the director of Ford’s communications for EVs, said:

“If a customer isn’t happy with their dealer, our team can help them find a different dealer that’s a better match. Dealers are independent franchises and ultimately the final price a customer will pay for any vehicle is agreed between themselves and a dealer.”

In other words, dealers are presenting a problem that Tesla always assumed they’d present if Tesla had to sell cars through them instead of directly to customers."

Much more in the article here:

https://cleantechnica.com/2021/09/19/dealers-are-preventing-ford-from-competing-with-tesla/