I am sure someone made a study out of this like 5 years ago but reading an item about Ford’s new company Model E, made me think.
Side effect of the electrification revolution is that companies like Tesla, Rivian, Lucid, Fisker and the newcomers from China are having success with Direct-To-Consumer sales. They are not using dealerships networks at all to sell new vehicles.
Ford USA recently announced a new company called Ford Model E that will solely put EV’s on the streets without any dealership intervention.
Model E partners will not hold an inventory, they will instead just facilitate the delivery of online orders only, like a web-shop. Electric vehicles will be sold at non-negotiable fixed prices, thus taking out any middle man profit.
A large group of the current automotive dealers will not survive this revolution, not only because the unwillingness to change and adapt (and specialize) but many will just become obsolete and might have to resolve to become ‘just another used car lot’ or go out of business altogether due to the low maintenance on EV’s.
Laws may be introduced that would ban over-the-air updates to protect the strong dealer lobby so that some dealerships can stay in business and keep their right to exist but will that be enough?
EV’s are known to need a tiny amount of maintenance compared to the old world internal combustion cars, this will cause problems for many dealerships obviously. Many ‘old’ dealers will convert to become EV Short lease and Charging stations.
However there are also many suppliers and vendors who receive their revenue from those dealerships and they will also be hurt. There are thousands of companies who’s sole revenue is created because of dealerships. Suppliers, marketeers, advertisers etc etc. and guess where the dealers first budget cuts will land?
When so many car dealer businesses (potential) go out of business they also will loose the market and therefore must adapt now and create new products and services and look for other markets. Like the EV power charge brands or change / add business plans and add training IT- experts and offer them as ‘mechanics’ to EV maintenance organizations.
The need for infrastructure specialists and programmers will explode in the near future, guess what kids do NOT learn at our average schools?
Then there is an enormous upcoming branch that will deal with the millions of old and deceased car batteries. refurbish or recycle (if that is even possible)
I personally think the electric car push is wrong and not sustainable in the long run. Big tech should invest much more time and money in developing new and alternative transportation for our cars and less in politics.
Oh and btw where do you think al that power will come from?
Hint below:
