The Sierra Club found availability and sales support for electric cars to be lacking, which … [+]
Though a majority of automakers are committed to developing and selling electric cars in the coming years, a prominent environmental group says manufacturers and dealers alike are showing little enthusiasm for stocking and marketing them.
According to a just-released report by the Sierra Club, this amounts to automakers “greenwashing” their commitments to reducing tailpipe emissions. As it stands, a number of them, including Fiat-Chrysler, General Motors, and Toyota recently sided with President Trump to relax emissions and fuel economy standards established by the Obama administration. What’s more, a separate study determined that automakers are devoting only a razor-thin percentage of the advertising and marketing budgets to promote electric vehicles. The Sierra Club says manufacturers are spending 28 times more nationwide to advertise internal combustion vehicles than electric cars.
And yet a 2019 study conducted by Consumer Reports and the Union of Concerned Scientists determined that nearly two-thirds of prospective car buyers would consider an electrified model in the future. That is, if they can find a dealer that would sell them one.
The organization sent 579 volunteers out into the field to visit over 900 auto dealerships in all 50 states to assess how well electric cars are being supported on the retail level. They generally found shortfalls in electric car availability, how they were presented and charged for test drives, and salesperson knowledge regarding the products.
“The auto industry needs to end its greenwashing claim that it’s committed to an electric future when, in reality, automakers and dealerships are dragging their feet to offer consumers the electric vehicles they want and deserve,” says Hieu Le, a representative with the Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All campaign and the main author of the report. “It’s past time for the auto industry to put some action behind its promises of progress and work to tackle emissions from transportation.”
Specifically, the Sierra Club found that only a mere 26 percent of dealerships nationwide are in fact stocking and selling electric vehicles. Of those that do offer them, 28 percent are staffed by salespeople who know little to nothing about how to charge an electric car. In 31 percent of the locations visited, the staff did not provide information on the one-time federal tax credit granted to electric car buyers, nor offered any details on applicable local incentives.
Of the dealerships that sold electric cars, 44 percent of them had no more than two models in stock. A substantial 66 percent of them did not have an electric vehicle displayed prominently in the showroom, often shoving one to the back of the showroom floor.
Further hampering the electric-car buying experience, volunteers asking for a test drive were given models that were insufficiently charged and unable to be taken to the road 10 percent of the time.
As proof that legislative means may be necessary to help further the widespread adoption of battery-driven vehicles, the study found that dealers in the 11 states which have adopted California’s strict zero-emissions auto regulations had much greater inventory of electric cars than those in non-ZEV states. In non-ZEV states 78 percent of car dealers had zero electric cars in stock. And even in ZEV states, 59 percent of dealers did not have a single electric car on the lot.
As it stands, a number of battery-powered models, including the Hyundai Ionic and Kona Electric, the Kia Niro EV, and the Volkswagen eGolf are only offered in ZEV-friendly states. Buyers simply can’t buy electric cars where they aren’t sold.
On the plus side, respondents reported that 25 percent of dealerships that stocked electric cars offered both new and used models, which the Sierra Club takes as a sign that the market for them is on the rise. The western region of the U.S. was found to have greater electric car availability and the highest customer satisfaction, with California, the nation’s largest ZEV market, leading the way in this regard. And many of the volunteers did report having a superior electric-car shopping experience, being impressed with the salespeople and the level of information being shared. Some even purchased an electric car as result of their experience.
Perhaps not surprisingly, given that it’s an all-electric brand, Tesla was said to provide the best consumer shopping experience among all automakers, with an average satisfaction score of 4.5 out of 5. Maybe that’s one explanation as to why the Tesla Model 3 currently outsells all the other electric cars on the market combined.
The Sierra Club’s report provides recommendations for both automakers and car dealers to help further the technology. It suggests automakers make electric cars available in additional markets, increase inventory volume, better educate dealers on technology and applicable incentives, and increase their marketing budgets for ZEV models. It advises dealers to proactively secure electric cars from the manufacturers they represent, display them prominently, keep them fully charged for test drives, and provide additional salesperson training to best be able to sell them.
You can read the full report here.
