Ford tells dealers to PAUSE EV investments while it alters certification program

[hturnerfamily]

Ford is dealing with some similar circumstances that other manufacturers are: some dealers 'GET' the additions of EVs on their lots, and some are heavily BALKING at the sheer notion of EVs...

Some are embracing it, some are not.
This is a big deal to many. They must accept and UNDERSTAND the differences in the power train platform between ICE and EV. Some do not want to. Some are close enough to retirement, they don't feel the need to. Some don't think they sell well in their 'area'. Some think EV sales will destroy their profit-center Service Centers, which, honestly, is the place most of us never want to visit. Walmart does a better job at service than many dealers, certainly when it comes to wait times.

Ford put a lot of pressure on EV Certified Dealers to meet certain goals that will REINFORCE EV sales and put the local EV potential audience at EASE with their decisions. A customer buying an EV from a local Ford dealer, which has it's own DC Fast Charger and welcomes it's use, can come to this new table with CONFIDENCE that they will be supported with this new power train and how it works.

Ford is also realizing that maybe they overshot the number of dealers who would participate wholeheartedly in the process. Ford may be realizing that they also need to help plan, help install, and FINANCE these huge cost of DC Fast Chargers, versus just putting the onus on the dealer owners.

I think before we see any major transformation of Ford dealers, we will see Walmarts having their own charging stations. Gas Station and truck stop chains are already doing the same. Local businesses and municipalities and doing it. And, we welcome it all.

For some reason, many dealers see the EV sales 'push' as somewhat of a force that they wish not to help participate in. It's hard to change.

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[climateguy]

By having standards it also helps ensure the EVs leave with a “full tank” like dealer did with gas versions. That was one of my frustrations with my Lightning as they kept the battery around 40% and only had a split EVSE so while I was doing the paperwork I got a dismissal 3kw of energy going to my new truck, requiring me to deep charge first thing when I got home. If they would have had a 48 amp EVSE I would have at least moved the needle a little before having to drive away.

When I bought my 2021 Chev Bolt, the dealer charged it just barely enough for me to make it home. I stopped at the first fast charger I knew about only to find it was not working. I wrote the general manager to say if there's one thing you could do for me to make me feel better about your dealership, it would be to charge up the EVs you sell prior to the sale, for the next customer. He wrote back telling me Chevrolet had warned him not to charge up his EV stock as it would damage the battery. I was astonished.

I knew very little about EVs or their batteries at that time. I told him if this is what Chevrolet is telling you, why are you not telling your customers? Imagine if a dealer told you after your purchase of an ICE vehicle that you could not fill the gas tank and leave it full for any length of time or your vehicle would be damaged. I concluded eventually that this dealership knew nothing about the EVs they were selling.

 

[DesertEV]

They need to keep the training going for techs…need to have training for sales guys so they know more about what they are selling and the finance team to know how to process tax credit info correctly for each calendar year. There is no way, with the tax incentives, Ford’s incentives and dealer incentives that they should have 23’s on the lot. Reflection of sales team not selling/getting the word out. Just my 2 cents.

 

[SmoothJ]

They need to keep the training going for techs…need to have training for sales guys so they know more about what they are selling and the finance team to know how to process tax credit info correctly for each calendar year. There are no way, with the tax incentives, Ford’s incentives and dealer incentives that they should have 23’s on the lot. Reflection of sales team not selling/getting the word out. Just my 2 cents.

I actually helped my dealer/salesman since he didn't know much about EVs. He later asked me... want a part time job?

 

[F150ROD]

They need to keep the training going for techs…need to have training for sales guys so they know more about what they are selling and the finance team to know how to process tax credit info correctly for each calendar year. There are no way, with the tax incentives, Ford’s incentives and dealer incentives that they should have 23’s on the lot. Reflection of sales team not selling/getting the word out. Just my 2 cents.

They have 23's on the lot because dealers still want to rob customers with hidden dealer markups. Sure you get all the incentives, but somehow you still pay more than you would for a Tesla.

Not to mention the atrocious software.

 

[sotek2345]

Not to mention the atrocious software.

I will still take Ford's software over Tesla's any day. I REALLY like my Android Auto thank you very much!

 

[F150ROD]

I will still take Ford's software over Tesla's any day. I REALLY like my Android Auto thank you very much!

At one point I felt the same way….

 

[Joe.....Montana]

Definitely curious to see how this shakes out....in Montana you have a Ford dealership every 150-200 miles...so all it would take is one or two Ford dealerships to completely cash out of EV's and I would be looking at a 400-600 mile journey for "service".

 

[RickLightning]

Ford is dealing with some similar circumstances that other manufacturers are: some dealers 'GET' the additions of EVs on their lots, and some are heavily BALKING at the sheer notion of EVs...

Some are embracing it, some are not.
This is a big deal to many. They must accept and UNDERSTAND the differences in the power train platform between ICE and EV. Some do not want to. Some are close enough to retirement, they don't feel the need to. Some don't think they sell well in their 'area'. Some think EV sales will destroy their profit-center Service Centers, which, honestly, is the place most of us never want to visit. Walmart does a better job at service than many dealers, certainly when it comes to wait times.

Ford put a lot of pressure on EV Certified Dealers to meet certain goals that will REINFORCE EV sales and put the local EV potential audience at EASE with their decisions. A customer buying an EV from a local Ford dealer, which has it's own DC Fast Charger and welcomes it's use, can come to this new table with CONFIDENCE that they will be supported with this new power train and how it works.

Ford is also realizing that maybe they overshot the number of dealers who would participate wholeheartedly in the process. Ford may be realizing that they also need to help plan, help install, and FINANCE these huge cost of DC Fast Chargers, versus just putting the onus on the dealer owners.

I think before we see any major transformation of Ford dealers, we will see Walmarts having their own charging stations. Gas Station and truck stop chains are already doing the same. Local businesses and municipalities and doing it. And, we welcome it all.

For some reason, many dealers see the EV sales 'push' as somewhat of a force that they wish not to help participate in. It's hard to change.

Walmart announced this over a year ago. 1,300. Has nothing to do with the EA chargers they already have.

https://corporate.walmart.com/news/...n-to-expand-electric-vehicle-charging-network

 

[bmw325_num99]

Ford really shot themselves in the foot by rushing into EV's, and now delaying them.

They have no "good" hybrids. They discontinued the Edge, which would have been an awesome PHEV, they can only produce a limited number of hybrid Mavericks, and canceled the Fusion. The F150 hybrid is geared more towards power instead of efficiency. And now they have to import the Nautilus from China, with a huge tariff.

I like the Escape PHEV

 

[Newton]

Level 2 chargers are useful if they are in a place that you want to be, and in a place that you have access to. The problem is that dealerships fail on those two criteria - there is no good reason for hanging around an auto dealer for hours, and to keep their stock secure they close and lock their dealerships after hours. This means that there is a very small window of usefulness to a Level 2 charger, you need to hit the dealership hours before they close and many of them don't open all that early.

So I agree that in general we need more Level 2 chargers, but they need to be in places where people are already going to be spending hours such as at apartments, hotels, motels, maybe movie theaters, casinos, etc. When your range is pushing near 200 miles, a charger that gives you at best 25 miles per hour (SR or all 2024 Lightnings) isn't the way to give customers a good experience.

I went to an EV show in a mid-sized town that had a slow charger in the courthouse. I needed range to get home but this thing was 5kW. We took an hour walk along the river, but the charge obtained didn't give me enough range to be worth the effort even for my very efficient and short ranged e-Golf. I'm not silly so I had plenty of range to make the nearest fast charger, and I regretted the time spent monkeying around with the app and the charger.

 

[Maxx]

Is this another deal with Tesla? T3 will have a CT pack in it and we will have to take the truck to Tesla service centers. We will be ordering it from Amazon.

Or Farley getting his wish and separating EV business completely.

My crystal ball is foggy today. Stay tuned.

 

[Pioneer74]

I like the Escape PHEV

It's alright. We had 4 Escapes in a row. Then we went to an Edge. I wish we would have had all Edge's. Same MPG with a 100% better interior.

 

[BabyDoc1012]

Is this another deal with Tesla? T3 will have a CT pack in it and we will have to take the truck to Tesla service centers. We will be ordering it from Amazon.

Or Farley getting his wish and separating EV business completely.

My crystal ball is foggy today. Stay tuned.

That is a good guess. This is my first EV, I have been reading a lot about them. From what I’ve heard Tesla makes decent batteries with few issues.
It also could be that Farley is going to have more separation if the EV business. Maybe set up EV only dealers. As long as we can get them with a decent driving distance for maintenance or if the majority of work could be completed by mobile service it might work better in our favor. A dealership full of salesmen and techs that want to sale and service EVs would be better than we have now. And the Tesla/Rivian model of service centers seems to be working alright. However I did choose ford because of the dealer network and ability to go to any dealer if I have an issue. But we shall see.

 

[TheWoo]

I would disagree. We need chargers period. DCFC would be helpful, but may not be needed in each town. In towns with none or only a single station, yes FMC should pay the dealer to place one. But at the end of the day a minimum of two public accessed only EVSEs is the least they should ask for.

The cost of two public accessed 40-48 amp level two chargers is negligible to the overall cost of doing business. By having those chargers in rural America, in the land of DCFC desert, helps prevent the “I ran out of power” and photos of a “Ford Lightning towed for running out of energy”.

By having standards it also helps ensure the EVs leave with a “full tank” like dealer did with gas versions. That was one of my frustrations with my Lightning as they kept the battery around 40% and only had a split EVSE so while I was doing the paperwork I got a dismissal 3kw of energy going to my new truck, requiring me to deep charge first thing when I got home. If they would have had a 48 amp EVSE I would have at least moved the needle a little before having to drive away.

The last thing I want dealerships to do is charge their EVs to 100% just to have them sit on the lot. There's not much they could do that would be more detrimental, especially if it's hot out.

That said, a dealership that is paying attention is going to talk to its customers about that and offer to get it charged or give good instructions on where to go.

If a dealership knows the night before they're selling the car the next day, then by all means. I was fortunate to buy from a dealer who kept trucks on the lot in the 40-60% range and he asked me how much charge I wanted. I had a 120 mile drive home so told him to fill 'er on up. But even this was a great start as he reinforced education that is important to owning an EV.

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