US auto showrooms need more electric cars, environmental group says

Environmental group the Sierra Club urged automakers and dealerships to help cut U.S. carbon emissions and fight the climate crisis by making more electric vehicle available in U.S. showrooms.

"It's past time for the auto industry to put some action behind its promises of progress and work to tackle emissions from transportation," said Hieu Le, the report's primary author.

The report found that 44% of dealerships offering EVs had no more than two EVs available in showrooms. Dealer salespeople regularly failed to provide information on tax incentives or had trouble answering questions about EV technology, the report found.

The group said automakers should boost EV production and offer then in more states, provide better incentives for dealerships selling EVs and make it easier for dealers to get certified to sell them.

The Sierra Club noted the United States accounts for 15% of global emissions, with the leading source being the transportation sector and said "accelerating the adoption and sales of EVs is crucial to tackling the climate crisis."

Asked for comment, National Automobile Dealers Association spokesman Jared Allen responded that "the number of battery electric vehicles stocked on franchised dealership lots is literally a function of supply and demand - nothing else." He also noted that many automakers do not yet manufacture electric vehicles that could be put in a showroom.

Through the first nine months of 2019, U.S. plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicle (EV) sales remained flat from a year earlier at around 240,000, according to two groups tracking sales.