Pub. 5 Issue 4

38 Issue 2 2020 It has taken the American auto dealer community too long to understand the challenges that may be holding buyers back by many accounts. Except perhaps for Tesla, consumer awareness of EVs has remained low. The Sierra Club issued a disillusioned report in 2016 after it sent 174 volunteers into auto showrooms in California and nine other states with zero-emission vehicle sales mandates. The volunteers reported that EVs were often hard to find on showroom floors and that vehicles designated for test drives were often left without adequate charges. Sales staff often failed to explain the government subsidies that could bring down the vehicles’ prices by as much as one-third and weren’t well-versed in the cars’ features or how to operate them. There are few signs that things have improved much since then. The reluctance of auto dealers to stock and sell EVs has been an article of faith for years. Auto manufacturers tend to blame EVs’ small share of the overall market on consumers, who they say gravitate toward bigger, heavier cars and SUVs and shun smaller, nimbler EVs. Dealers say they’re willing to sell whatever consumers want to buy. But they also say that consumer preferences reflect dynamic factors in the marketplace, including gasoline price. The auto in- dustry hasn’t been especially skilled at anticipating those factors. “When gas prices went up, everyone wanted compacts,” Holter recalls. “Then, when they stopped going up anymore, we were stuck with all this inventory.” Dealers may also be wary of EVs because they know that the advanced vehicles are destined to upend their traditional busi- ness model. “Very few dealers make money selling new cars,” says Howard Drake, the Casa Automotive Group owner — which includes Casa de Cadillac and Subaru, GMC and Buick dealerships, all in Sherman Oaks. “You make all your margin fixing cars” — that is, through repair and warranty service. EVs’ maintenance costs are as much as one-third lower than those of conventional cars; however, they have fewer moving parts or mechanical systems that are expensive to fix or replace,  AUTO DEALERS — continued on page 39 EVs’ maintenance costs are as much as one-third lower than those of conventional cars; however, they have fewer moving parts or mechanical systems that are expensive to fix or replace, such as transmissions