Ugly car IMO but still a deal.
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If I am the owner of a chain of Ford dealerships, I am freaking out right now. The $2000 distribution cost mentioned in the article is a big problem when margins are so tight so the decision does make sense from that regard. It will take a while, but if other brands do the same, the dealership becomes a dinosaur in 10-15 years.
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A lot of people in the industry think all dealershipsā days are numbered.
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I imagine they have to be. Iād rather custom order and have it delivered to my house than haggle at a dealer. If you have branches with cars for test drives then that replaces the only true value of a dealership since Tesla and others already have mobile, at-home service providers.
With EVs needing significantly less maintenance and locking down software and such the need for the service shop at a dealership goes way down. If they ditch the dealership model though they will need to have some sort of a shop network for battery maintenance and such. Or they are going to need to contract with 3rd party folks to do the basic maintenance or recall work.
What ābattery maintenanceā are you referring to?
2 different types - one is just the lemon stuff that happens. Get a battery that is just a lemon and need it replaced - it happens. The second will be replacing of batteries. I know the life expectancy is 300k+ on teslas but replacing batteries is going to be something that has to be done unless people are gonna just throw the cars away. Also the cynical person in me expects manufacturers to engineer battery obsolescence to drive new sales. With less things to go wrong that spur trade ins with evs, to drive new sales they will have to do something. I know Iāve also heard of customers trying to do some of their own work and the EVs basically bricking themselves and having to be towed to a dealer to have it fixed.
Recall work is something else that shows up regularly that the company will need to be able to handle in someway.
Not a knock on EVs or anything, but even they will need maintenance from a button not working to a latch breaking to software messing up to battery issues.
Yeah the two things you mention are exceedingly rare. I really donāt think people fully understand the lack of maintenance in an EV. We are so used to our gas powered Rube Goldberg machines needing almost constant maintenance, that we assume evās must certainly be the same way.
The battery being a lemon may happen in extremely rare cases, and after like four hundred thousand miles yeah you may need a replacement, but how often are those really happening vs all the constant maintenance of an ice car? Iāve got an eight year old bargain basement cheapo ev with a battery that still holds basically the same charge as when it was brand new.
The lack of complexity both in the battery as well as the electric motor is something people just arenāt used to.
Iām not arguing with you at all. There will definitely be a need for shops that specialize in EV issues. But they will just be a tiny fraction of what is needed for the current ice fleet.
After 9100 miles, my battery hasnāt show any degradation. In fact my most recent charge to 100% had the highest estimated range Iāve seen so far at 350 miles.
Yeah certainly wonāt be the issues that ICE cars have but that actually complicates maintenance issues. With the volume being lower how will that be handled? In say Charlotte Iām sure any major brand would have a service center. What if I live in Shelby though? Probably not enough work to need a center but the cars are still going to run into issues and customers will still need a place to get them worked on. I know some older Teslas were having issues because their flash drives were wearing out. There is still going to be maintenance needs even if they are fewer and different and with many manufacturers not being cool with DIY mechanics or 3rd party services right now they are going to have to figure something out. Even something like accidents that damage batteries or other components. Maintenance is still a thing and as more and more EVs hit the road, many of varying degrees of quality, the need is going to increase.
With simpler service, the model manufacturers are aiming for is service on site. Fit more serious repairs they tow it to a service center.
So they are gonna send a tech from Charlotte to Shelby?
Tesla for example is certifying third party service techs to service their vehicles. Other manufacturers can and will do the same.
There will certainly be fewer maintenance/ repair companies/shops with electric cars, but they will exist in more than just major cities.
So they are certifying folks. The last I had read was they were hesitant to license anyone to work on the cars or software they werenāt Tesla employees. I just didnāt see how that was scalable.
As someone that likes to do my own stuff it drives me up the wall to see manufacturers try to restrict access to stuff but thatās happening on ICE cars right now too.
My co worker has a Tesla, there arenāt any Tesla dealerships in the triad, only Raleigh and Charlotte and yes they sent a tech to his house to do a service recently.
Iāve seen the techs a couple times in my neighborhood.