The American car manufacturer Ford has almost 3,000 dealers across the United States, but at least half of them are not ready to invest funds to prepare the dealerships for the sale and service of Ford electric models, the media reports. Detroit Free Press and it has also been confirmed by Ford representatives.
Those dealers who do not invest have chosen to offer cars with internal combustion engines and hybrids, which are becoming more and more popular, as residents try to reduce the cost of buying fuel, but are also unwilling/unable to pay for a full-fledged electric car.
Ford representatives emphasize that the dealers themselves conducted research in their region about people’s desire to switch to an electric car and made the relevant decisions. However, Ford emphasizes that approximately 86% of the US population lives within 20 miles (32 kilometers) of a Ford dealer that can still sell and then service Ford electric cars.
One of the reasons why dealers are not in a hurry to make these investments is because of Ford’s own very high requirements, which means a large investment. One of the requirements is to install fast chargers in the parking lot at the dealership. Also, extensive personnel training must be carried out and it is estimated that the certification can cost more than 1 million dollars in the end. For this reason, there have even been or are ongoing several lawsuits between the dealers and Ford, one of which has already been won by the dealers in the state of Illinois.
It was Ford dealers who were among the first to start ringing the alarm bells about falling demand for electric cars. In the fall, Ford scaled back production of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck, and the company has paused $12 billion worth of investments in electric vehicle development, at least for the time being, in response to declining sales.
2023-12-25 11:00:00
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