Report: Toyota, Ford, and others good at making EVs, not good at instructing dealers

According to a study performed by Consumer Reports, private auto dealers know little about electric cars despite the fact that folks have been selling cars such as the Nissan Leaf in droves. Evidently the purchasing experience is not unlike the experience one gets when purchasing an Apple computer or device from a Best Buy location; Consumer Reports sent 85 employees to separate dealerships to measure the level of experience and came up with this conclusion.

For EV proponents, the news gets worse; though dealers work on commission, some outright discouraged the purchase of an EV to the CR representatives who visited the dealerships. CR staffers asked about fairly simple things too that one might expect the burgeoning EV owner to ask: range, tax breaks, charging times, battery life and warranties, and the like. Of all the manufacturers, CR reported that Toyota remained the most reticent about their plug in products and, on one occasion, refused showing a Prius Plug-in to an undercover staffer. At this point, it’s worthwhile to note that this is where Tesla has tried their best to make their case about selling directly. They feel that they have the ability to not only sell EVs, but have actually trained salespeople who are knowledgeable about the products that they are selling; does this seem like rocket science that only EV-only manufacturers can crack?

-By: Sawyer Sutton

Source: Consumer Reports

 

Sawyer Sutton

Sawyer Sutton is a long-time Vermonter and lover of cars, big machinery, and photography. These are his words on cars as Senior Editor of egmCarTech.

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