Why EVs Are Piling Up At Dealerships In The U.S.
In August 2023, it took about twice as long to sell an EV in the U.S. as it did the previous January. Prices of EVs are down 22% year-over-year and that’s mainly driven by Tesla. About two thirds of EVs sold are Elon Musk’s brand. Companies like Ford have ramped up hybrid production as demand has leveled off. While slightly more than half of consumers say EVs are the future and will eventually replace Internal Combustion Engines, less than a third of dealers say so. This all comes at a time when investments in EVs are more than ever. So what’s really going on? Watch the video to learn more.
Chapters:
00:00 — Introduction
02:06 — Shifting preferences
05:48 — High costs and uncertainty
10:38 — A trend of a blip?
14:08 — The future
Produced by: Robert Ferris
Edited by: Dain Evans
Senior Managing Producer: Tala Hadavi
Animation: Christina Locopo, Andrea Schmitz
Additional Footage: Ford, Getty Images, Lucid, Mercedes-Benz, Tesla
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Why EVs Are Piling Up At Dealerships In The U.S.
Im not fond of Tesla, but I do like the fact that they’ve been steadily slashing the prices of their vehicles, and that you can literally order one straight from your smartphone. No haggling, no excessive unnecessary markups, you don’t have to stay there all day, etc…
I think its time we allow all automakers to sell direct-to-consumer and cut the middle man.
Absolutely agree
Direct to consumer is getting a huge rise in everything beyond just cars, look at how Amazon is doing it and they’re making more money by cutting out the middle man.
Sometimes companies chasing profits isn’t a bad thing lmaoo
Can someone correct me if I’m wrong, but if I recall correctly Tesla slashed prices only to qualify for tax credits.
In North America Tesla is only reasonable option for a primary car (EV) at least until others will start implement there NAICS plug. In my opinion other EVs are okay if you need commute/city car
My favorite part about tesla is there are no dealerships. You have a few flagship stores that allow you to view and test drive the cars, but even there there’s very few employees and all they do is direct you to a computer to place your order. They are there to answer questions and the bets part is they aren’t commission. I hope there is a future where all new cars are direct to consumers and we see dealerships at least for new cars disappear. I would rather pay taxes than go to any dealership. You are going to end up spending half the day there. Just imagine a world where you can casually use your smartphone or computer, build the car you want, remove add ons if it gets to pricy and then pay. All of this without ever having an employee nagging you. This is 2023 and dealerships are obsolete. Right now there is a pesky law protecting these dealerships, but it seems that teslas has gotten around it, and if we truly meet that all electric goal by 2035, that would be when we could finally rid ourselves of some of the most frustrating times.
As long as dealerships continue to lobby the politicians in DC, this will never happen. The FTC just tried to pass a rule making it illegal for dealerships to lie about the price of a car during advertisements and the politicians in DC said leave the dealerships alone.
Much of the reason for the dominance of Tesla in the EV market is their direct sales model. Having purchased a new vehicle this month I can say that one of the largest impediments to vehicle sales is the dealer experience. With a bit of online research is not hard for the customer to know more about the vehicle than than dealer sales staff. Manufacturers should use the transition to EVs to open direct sales channels.
Precisely why the Dealers assoc pay tv companies to make this kind of “journalism”.
Forreal car salespeople are sleeze bags. That’s why your car cost so much. Because they’re there to stiff you for their commission.
There’s no transition
@Alan Abdo I am a car salesman, not a sleeze. But, I would say go tell that to your realtor when you buy a house.
Even used cars are heavily marked up at dealerships. No haggle Scion was the easy, but they got rid of it. Tesla website is even easier and I can plug it in my garage while I watch TV or sleep
You guys should revisit this next year after the CCS-NACS adapter comes out. Should go a long way to balancing out the EV charging infastructure issues.
I doubt it. A large part of the network isn’t version 3 thus won’t support anything but Tesla. Everywhere else it’s true that Tesla will have the best chargers they’ll become crowded and Tesla will respond by raising prices having no competition. Except to pay similar amounts as gas for a tesla super charge on a non-tesla. There is a possibility that I have been hoping for that Tesla takes an extremely aggressive approve at expanding their network but the incentives don’t make sense. You aren’t buying their cars.
Tesla isn’t sitting around not producing more charging stations. They know they will become the “standard” look at how many automakers are going with the NACS charge port for their vehicles.
@penguins forall now that almost everyone is agreeing to a charging standard I think we will see better charging networks. Hyundai is supposed to be working on a network so we shall see how that goes
@LaRonn Robinson CCS was already the charging standard lol.
@penguins forall you know I meant NACS.
I was eager to buy an electric vehicle but the higher cost and the limited availability of charging stations in my area ultimately led me to opt for a hybrid instead.
Go Tesla! BIG advantage as far as charging over ALL OTHER EV MANUFACTURERS!
Until it’s time to replace that battery.
@Life Mastery Podcast , Steven Arecco yeah no thanks…. Especially when they’ll slice the prices $7-$15k again
@The Beast and how often do you think you replace the battery?
@Oof_DadBut what happens when u get T-boned? Tesla makes u get a new car
I believe the biggest problem in EVs is when it comes to public charging (except Tesla). I work for The Ford Store Morgan Hill, a dealer in Northern California and last week I delivered a used Ford F-150 Lightning with 17k miles to Carlsbad, Ca which is in San Diego County. The distances was around 406 miles from Morgan Hill, Ca, the range before I put the address on the GPS in the truck was 316, after the address was put in it was roughly 250 miles. I had to charge in just under 200 miles and the charger was about 2 miles away from I-5. No problem at that charger, which was at a Shell station with a Taco Bell, breakfast while I waited to charge to 82% it took 37 minutes and it cost $40.32. When I left that charging station on HWY 43, the truck told me I had to charge again in Santa Clarita at a Walmart which was 87 miles from the first charger. I found the Walmart and the chargers easily, but one of the 350 kw charger was broken, the others were being used and I lucked out that an ID 4 charging on the 150 kw charger was just finishing charging and I plugged in for about 30 minutes. I was then on my way to Carlsbad through the lovely So Cal traffic, I was fortunate that the truck had carpool stickers which helped at lot through that nightmare traffic mid-morning. I got to Carlsbad with a 90 mile range. I decided to go to the chargers at an outlet mall in Carlsbad so I could deliver the truck to the customer with more than a 90 mile range. At those chargers there was 4 chargers with one of them was broken, and the others were being used. I gave up and delivered the truck with just under 90 miles left. Very challenging trip but not impossible. All the chargers were Electrify America which is the company that the Ford vehicles send you to. The customer service at Electrify America sucks, no one answers the phones. By the way our dealer does not mark-up any vehicle.
Your 1st sentence says it al ” I believe the biggest problem in EVs is when it comes to public charging (except Tesla).” You never see a broken Tesla supercharger + they are more powerful & have more units per stop. Electrify America is a terrible network.
And that lengthy tale of inconvenience is why I’d never want one. The BMW 535d I drive could go there and back on one tank and be refilled in a few minutes if not.
2 weeks ago I had a Tesla Model 3 long range as a rental car when I did a weekend trip in Toronto. Car was great and enjoyed using it. Tesla chargers were of course never the issue, BUT my main issue still stands with EVs is having to plan around charging and having to make use of the time wisely. With the amount of driving I found it such an annoyance having to plan when I should charge and what I should do when Im charging instead of just sitting in the car doing nothing and wasting time while the car is charging, compared to a regular gas car I just pull off into a gas station for less than 5 minutes, fill up and keep going. EVs have their pros and cons just like any other vehicle but having to worry about charging when you dont have a garage to plug in every night is still a big annoyance and why I still prefer ICE cars.
Wow, that’s expensive for a charge!
Prices are too high, and dealerships keep adding more dealership fees. It’s ridiculous. On top of that, interest rates don’t help.
That part about dealers and the mark up is real. They are literally killing demand.
Talk to the dealers, they’re very reasonable, they’ll throw in some nitrogen-filled tires for $500.
No competition from Chinese EVs in US. Whereas Europe also terrified of cheap chinese EVs killing their auto industry.
There are Facebook groups that are dedicated to no markup dealers. May have to look around but some cars can be bought for msrp. As for interest rates those are going to be high for a while.
I think every car sale has slowed, not just EV. Living cost is rising, consumer spending are slowing and delinquency rates are rising. Car loan lending also decreased.
Having a standard for charging is a huge thing in order to get people to get into EVs. Charging stations will become super convivence store locations (e.g. Buc-ees; sheetz; wawa; etc) because of the many people would would purchase food & drinks while waiting for their car to charge in 30 minutes to an hour.
unfortunately were far away from that. It won’t be easy to install that much power needed to charge cars to existing gas stations.
Or shop lift
Hopefully we’ll get to sub-30 mins but yeah. Jesus who are these people that can’t take 30 min breaks every 3 and half hours of driving?
In inner city where robber know you will be there for 30+ minutes not going anywhere? Easy targets
There is a standard charging system. Tesla superchargers. I think 5-6 manufacturers adopted them this year already. They do put them near the places you mentioned on purpose. They even have a test restaurant surrounded by chargers. Hotels are now installing them for overnight charging.
Back in 2010, GM produced the Chevrolet Volt – also called the Opel Ampera in Europe – which is to this day one of the best solutions to a mixed mobility, between a EV mode on urban sites, and a ICE-generator for medium-distance travel.
This was a very good solution for a second car, while keeping your ICE powered car for long-distance traveling.
At the moment, I think this PHEV solution is quite good for a mixed use, with an EV as a second car for exclusive urban duties.
This shifts and changes in both price (vehicle acquisition, gasoline, energy) and politics (by the Federal Government) is the major source of doubt and skepticism from buyers.
This is what is drying up the EV market.
Tesla, with its super charging network, is the only one which is capable of changing that trend.
In my opinion, Tesla will fail its customer in replacement parts when their car fails – and God forbid you get into an accident!
Hybrid, PHEV, and EV are where we should be going. EVs are decent commuter cars to drive to work and then drive home to charge up. PHEVs allow for most daily driving to be electric but have gas for longer trips and quick refueling. For those who can’t charge at home (street parking, apartment lot, old house), a hybrid has fuel economy benefits without having to worry about where to recharge. Forcing EV isn’t the answer. EV sales are slowing because everyone who wants an EV has bought one. Someone living in a crappy apartment complex isn’t going to buy a car they can’t charge.
😊👍 A 40-mile range PHEV allows:
– 14,000 miles annually all-electric commuting on cheap home charging.
– Never experience range or charge anxiety on long trips.
– Never dependent on public charging thats often broken, occupied or ICED.
– No need for an enormous, expen$ive battery to cover every eventuality.
– Never forced to endure a dark, rainy charging session at a sketchy freeway exit with a car full of crying toddlers or whining doggos.
– Never forced to have your car dictate your schedule or vacation.