Half of Ford dealers wait on EV shift
Switch requires charging infrastructure outlay
Half the Ford dealers in the nation, or some 1,550, have chosen to stick with selling hybrid and internal combustion engine vehicles only in 2024, waiting to decide whether to make the investments needed to sell and service electric vehicles, the Detroit Free Press has learned.
“EV adoption rates vary across the country and we believe our dealers know their market best,” Ford spokesman Marty Gunsberg told the Detroit Free Press. “As Ford dealers have completed their own local market assessments, enrollments for 2024 are just over 50% of the network, placing 86% of the population within 20 miles of a Ford dealership that can sell and service a Ford EV.”
The latest data provided by Ford indicates a cooling-off period with dealers. A year ago, the Free Press reported that Ford CEO Jim Farley had “secured commitments” from two out of every three dealers to go all-in on selling EVs.
At that time, Ford said it had enrolled 1,920 dealers in the voluntary Model e Program for the initial 2024 to 2026 periods. Some dealers later withdrew, Gunsberg confirmed.
Customers shopping for electric vehicles will soon see signage that identifies dealers as Model e Certified Elite or Model e Certified. This is significant because it also tells the public the location of fast chargers needed to “fuel up” electric vehicles, Ford said. Finding charging stations for EVs has been an ongoing challenge for consumers. This secures additional sites.
Initially, Ford said its dealers needed to decide whether they wanted to pay an estimated $500,000 to $1.2 million to install the charging infrastructure to achieve the special certification status. If dealers don’t have charging stations, they can’t service the electric vehicles. A second period of certification will take place in 2027, after Ford has begun releasing its new electric vehicle lineup.
What was presented as a conservative dollar amount needed to make the upgrades ended up triggering a dealer backlash and even lawsuits challenging the program. The automaker has reduced the number of charging stations required per dealership, lowering dealer investments. Ford said installation costs vary by dealer site.
The automaker declined to provide additional details on which dealerships would move ahead with EV investment, but the company indicated that dealerships in EV-friendly states such as California are moving forward while places including the Dakotas are slower to plunge into the EV commitment.
Unlike General Motors, Ford is not doing dealership buyouts if a dealer wants to avoid the EV market, Gunsberg said.
The Free Press reported Wednesday that nearly half the Buick dealerships, or about 1,000, will opt out of moving forward with GM as it transitions to an all-electric plan by 2035.
Ford, like GM, is requiring its dealerships to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to sell and service vehicles that operate on a completely different power system.
In recent weeks, Ford has scaled back on its Ford F-150 Lightning production and reduced additional EV investments for the time being to accommodate slower-than-expected demand for its EV products.