Ford caves on EV dealer program following IL loss and will cut charger requirements

[luebri]

Welp… more pulling back on Ford’s EV shift aggressivenes. Ford is in between a rock and a hard place on this one so I dont blame them.

Net Net, Not great for the likelihood of more DCFC.

https://electrek.co/2023/11/20/ford-caves-ev-dealer-program-following-il-loss/

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[Peddyr]

Not training your employees to provide better service to your customers to me is the far greater disappointment. A clear sign these dealers don't give a $h!t about their customers once they've completed the sale.

 

[The Weatherman]

Seems odd that a court could find against Ford here because the participation was voluntary. Those dealer were not REQUIRED to become E dealers.

 

[Heliian]

"caves". They lost a court decision ffs, that's far from caving.

I'm sure Ford will continue to favor their compliant dealers.

 

[F150ROD]

Ford always has the option of selling straight from the Factory and just having a dealer deliver while still giving the dealer stock.

My first Ford was bought this way when I was stationed overseas.

I understand why dealers fought this but Ford has to know that there are some GM, dealer owners that are 100% against MSRP only and EV’s.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Come on Illinois, your leading with mediocrity, training service tech's should be a number one priority.

 

[ddimit]

"That Automobile is just a fad" said the Horse and buggy dealer.

 

[Maquis]

Come on Illinois, your leading with mediocrity, training service tech's should be a number one priority.

Once you get to know our governor, you get used to it.

 

[Texas Dan]

There is definitely a dealer problem. Out of the 247 new F150s my dealer has listed on Autotrader, only 8 are Lightnings, This gives pretty good indication that the lack of demand for the Lightning is caused by the dealers not wanting to put Lightnings on their lots, not by consumers not wanting to buy Lightnings.

I was hoping to see a few dealerships in rural areas I drive in install fast chargers this year but that hasn’t happened. With the Lightning, Ford dealerships have a strategic advantage but they just don’t see it. In a year or two Tesla, Chevrolet, GMC, Ram and probably a few other manufacturers are going to have electric pickups on the market and Fords advantage will be wasted.

 

[jefrank]

The headline is click bait. This statement later in the article negates the "cave"...

Ford said it would appeal the decision in a statement. A spokesperson said, “Ford stands by its voluntary Model e EV program.” The program is designed to ensure that Ford and its dealers provide Illinois Ford EV customers with a segment-leading experience,” the spokesperson explained.

 

[RickLightning]

The headline is click bait. This statement later in the article negates the "cave"...

Ford said it would appeal the decision in a statement. A spokesperson said, “Ford stands by its voluntary Model e EV program.” The program is designed to ensure that Ford and its dealers provide Illinois Ford EV customers with a segment-leading experience,” the spokesperson explained.

Bingo

 

[RickLightning]

There is definitely a dealer problem. Out of the 247 new F150s my dealer has listed on Autotrader, only 8 are Lightnings, This gives pretty good indication that the lack of demand for the Lightning is caused by the dealers not wanting to put Lightnings on their lots, not by consumers not wanting to buy Lightnings.

I was hoping to see a few dealerships in rural areas I drive in install fast chargers this year but that hasn’t happened. With the Lightning, Ford dealerships have a strategic advantage but they just don’t see it. In a year or two Tesla, Chevrolet, GMC, Ram and probably a few other manufacturers are going to have electric pickups on the market and Fords advantage will be wasted.

I don't think you're right in your assessment.

I found a demo maybe 7 months ago in Texas. The dealership was desperate to get rid of it. The salesman said "We sell F350s and F250s, not even F150s. Why would anyone buy this?" No one had even driven it much.

 

[Oafy44]

There is definitely a dealer problem. Out of the 247 new F150s my dealer has listed on Autotrader, only 8 are Lightnings, This gives pretty good indication that the lack of demand for the Lightning is caused by the dealers not wanting to put Lightnings on their lots, not by consumers not wanting to buy Lightnings.

I was hoping to see a few dealerships in rural areas I drive in install fast chargers this year but that hasn’t happened. With the Lightning, Ford dealerships have a strategic advantage but they just don’t see it. In a year or two Tesla, Chevrolet, GMC, Ram and probably a few other manufacturers are going to have electric pickups on the market and Fords advantage will be wasted.

I think there’s several bottlenecks going on and the momentum has stalled.

1) ford got greedy- let’s artificially rob Peter to pay paul by raising prices on their regular trucks to “pay for the development / implementation of the lightning.
2) let’s raise the price of the lightning 10 times a year because inflation / Suppliers!! And overhead cost !!there’s (2 year backlog - then all the sudden drop the prices when Tesla does. I guess all the sudden the price of batteries and supplies dropped overnight.

3) Tesla cut prices then all of the sudden the OEMs realized they were In trouble going forward and didn’t have a blank check anymore.

4) gas isn’t horribly expensive and people don’t travel as much anymore for work/ groceries as much - most who can afford $70-$100k vehicle gets most things delivered or they work from home at least half the week.

Hindsight is 20/20 but it looks as though ford / just like with the ecoboost - should have really invested in the powerboost and equipt the expedition / bronco ect with that platform first like Toyota has and work their way from there.

5) Farley has been there 3 years and quality has gotten worse/ not better so ford is spending billions on fixing poor execution. He talks a great game and really rode the momentum early while failing at quality and holding people accountable. It was all about looks - which is great but if your not willing to sleep on the assembly line like musk did then I question what is important to a company that’s main goal is manufacturing

Ford unfortunately isn’t Tesla /rivian or even GM at this point. When the big two went bankrupt there legacy costs went away mostly. Ford still has to pay legacy while trying to evolve. It’s not a great set up for them.
I love ford and have a lightening and an f350 but business wise I think they can’t grow out of their past which means they can’t evolve into their future without something major changing

dealers aren’t stupid. They know what’s selling on their lots and what’s not. My dealer has 3 platinums at $12k off, 10k off lariats and xlts and no one is buying them. That’s not the dealers fault. If I came to you and told you to take 30 widgets and sell them - and told you to pay me in 60 days and you knew you couldn’t sell them would you take the widgets ?

Whoever is “green” when it comes to environment has already bought an EV for the most part - now the people left are those that are looking at $3-5k to set up their charging infrastructure - then a truck that cost $15k more then the same ecoboost truck at one point so it didn’t compute when most homeowners are putting 10k miles a year on their car now, not to mention those that think it’s a political play and don’t want to support it for those reasons.

time will eventually help the EV transition but for all those that aren’t “environmentally green” people. Just has to be easier and cheaper ultimately and right now it’s neither.

 

[Toby57]

There is definitely a dealer problem. Out of the 247 new F150s my dealer has listed on Autotrader, only 8 are Lightnings, This gives pretty good indication that the lack of demand for the Lightning is caused by the dealers not wanting to put Lightnings on their lots, not by consumers not wanting to buy Lightnings.

I was hoping to see a few dealerships in rural areas I drive in install fast chargers this year but that hasn’t happened. With the Lightning, Ford dealerships have a strategic advantage but they just don’t see it. In a year or two Tesla, Chevrolet, GMC, Ram and probably a few other manufacturers are going to have electric pickups on the market and Fords advantage will be wasted.

Dealers do not fill their lots with what they want to sell. Dealers attempt to fill their lots with what their customers want.

 

[Texas Dan]

I think there’s several bottlenecks going on and the momentum has stalled.

1) ford got greedy- let’s artificially rob Peter to pay paul by raising prices on their regular trucks to “pay for the development / implementation of the lightning.
2) let’s raise the price of the lightning 10 times a year because inflation / Suppliers!! And overhead cost !!there’s (2 year backlog - then all the sudden drop the prices when Tesla does. I guess all the sudden the price of batteries and supplies dropped overnight.

3) Tesla cut prices then all of the sudden the OEMs realized they were In trouble going forward and didn’t have a blank check anymore.

4) gas isn’t horribly expensive and people don’t travel as much anymore for work/ groceries as much - most who can afford $70-$100k vehicle gets most things delivered or they work from home at least half the week.

Hindsight is 20/20 but it looks as though ford / just like with the ecoboost - should have really invested in the powerboost and equipt the expedition / bronco ect with that platform first like Toyota has and work their way from there.

5) Farley has been there 3 years and quality has gotten worse/ not better so ford is spending billions on fixing poor execution. He talks a great game and really rode the momentum early while failing at quality and holding people accountable. It was all about looks - which is great but if your not willing to sleep on the assembly line like musk did then I question what is important to a company that’s main goal is manufacturing

Ford unfortunately isn’t Tesla /rivian or even GM at this point. When the big two went bankrupt there legacy costs went away mostly. Ford still has to pay legacy while trying to evolve. It’s not a great set up for them.
I love ford and have a lightening and an f350 but business wise I think they can’t grow out of their past which means they can’t evolve into their future without something major changing

dealers aren’t stupid. They know what’s selling on their lots and what’s not. My dealer has 3 platinums at $12k off, 10k off lariats and xlts and no one is buying them. That’s not the dealers fault. If I came to you and told you to take 30 widgets and sell them - and told you to pay me in 60 days and you knew you couldn’t sell them would you take the widgets ?

Whoever is “green” when it comes to environment has already bought an EV for the most part - now the people left are those that are looking at $3-5k to set up their charging infrastructure - then a truck that cost $15k more then the same ecoboost truck at one point so it didn’t compute when most homeowners are putting 10k miles a year on their car now, not to mention those that think it’s a political play and don’t want to support it for those reasons.

time will eventually help the EV transition but for all those that aren’t “environmentally green” people. Just has to be easier and cheaper ultimately and right now it’s neither.

No, I think you’re wrong. People are resistant to change and conversion to EVs is probably the biggest change we will see in our lifetimes aside from maybe the advent of computers. People in California, where they have been struggling with terrible air pollution for at least the past fifty years, are preconditioned to accept change related to cleaning up the air but places like Texas, that have an economy dependent on oil production, are especially resistant to changes that might cut into that production and the livelihoods of so many people.

That Texas mindset is mirrored in automotive dealerships choices. All the metropolitan areas of Texas are in non-attainment for air pollution and, even though the vehicles they sell are major contributors to that air pollution, the dealerships don’t care if making the situation better means they have to change their product line. According experts, because of the air pollution we are generating, our planet is creating the worst mass extinction event since an asteroid killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago but the dealerships with their choices show they don’t care that they are major contributors to this destruction.

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