Electric vehicles are becoming a common sight these days.
According to Kelley Blue Book and Cox Automotive, over 1.2 million auto buyers went with the plug instead of the gas pump last year, commanding a 7.6 percent market share in 2023.
With so many models on the market, from startups like Tesla (TSLA) and Rivian (RIVN) to well-known manufacturers like General Motors (GM) , Ford (F) , Hyundai, and Honda (HMC) , buyers can experience a diverse array of electric vehicles from brands with dealerships right down the block.
Though EVs may be in the showrooms of your local dealerships, the trusted salespeople inside may share a different opinion about electric vehicles that may shock you.
The Hyundai Ioniq 6 at a car dealership.
A shocking revelation
According to a new survey of 250 “dealership leaders” across the United States, a shockingly large number say that their sales staff aren’t exactly excited about selling EVs.
As per CDK Global (the same CDK Global that was involved in the massive data breach), salespeople’s overall mood toward EVs is more negative than positive. Their data shows that nationwide, 49% of the dealers it surveyed said that their sales teams “weren’t excited at all about selling EVs.”
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A geographical conundrum
However, certain parts of the country are more excited than others about selling electric cars.
In a region that CDK dubs “the Pacific region,” which includes the EV-friendly states of Washington, Oregon, and California, 46 percent of dealers had sales staff that were “moderately” or “very excited” to sell EVs.
Additionally, CDK found that dealers in New England had the most amount that were surveyed to be the most excited, with over 25% of the dealers in the region noting to CDK they were “very excited” and 17% being “moderately” excited.
In contrast, dealers in what CDK identifies as the East South Central region, which includes states like Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky, only 12% of dealers said their sales staff were excited in any way about electric cars.
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The actual landscape
According to CDK, dealers in most of the country have the biggest reservations about selling EVs for reasonable reasons.
In many parts of the country, many dealers are the only sales and service departments for miles, and charging infrastructure is not as well developed as in EV hotbeds on the coasts.
One dealer in Montana told CDK, “We live in a rural area with large distances between towns … It’s just not a viable alternative to ICE (Internal combustion engines).”
Additionally, a dealer in North Dakota said that the state’s notoriously cold winters would make EVs inappropriate for the environment. They envision a hypothetical dire situation for a poor EV owner.
“It’s primarily a range issue, which is always compromised when the heater is on full blast,” they told CDK. “If someone had to pull off the interstate due to inclement weather, they’d freeze to death at a rest stop.”
A training gap
Much of the lack of excitement about selling EVs is actually due to the amount of training that salespeople have on the products. In reality, a significant portion of the dealers nationwide are not actually trained on electric vehicles.
According to CDK, just 44% of dealers they surveyed have salespeople who were either “very trained” or “extremely trained” in the electric vehicles on their showroom floors. This means that more than half (56%) of the salespeople in dealers across this country may barely know a thing about the EVs the manufacturers have asked them to sell.
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Like the excitement factor, the training gap also shows that much of the trained dealer sales staff are concentrated in “EV hotbeds.”
In New England, 83% of dealers surveyed had sales staff that were “very” or “extremely trained” in selling EVs. In contrast, in the East South Central region, just 24% of dealers had staff with the same level of training.
Currently, the Biden administration’s revised EPA rules require that the U.S. auto industry sell at least 56% EVs within the total number of all new auto sales by 2032, and according to CDK, it isn’t going to happen if salespeople are not trained.
“With the market continuing to grow, and a predicted second wave of EV-curious shoppers poised to be in play by the second half of the decade, it’s smart for dealers to ramp up EV training and get salespeople back to the basics of customer needs’ assessments,” CDK said.
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