Here’s How to Spark Consumers’ EV Interest

Dealers may not want to pull the plug on new and used plug-in electric-vehicle sales just yet.

While it’s true that sales of electrified vehicles have stalled, some buyers are open to considering them.

“It was a surprise to me,” says automotive retail business consultant Wayne Phillips. “When (EVs) are priced $30,000 or under, they are selling.”

The surprise is not unusual. According to the just-released J.D. Power E-Vision Intelligence Report, heavy marketing pushes, and high-profile new model introductions have yet to nudge EV sales. Through August, PHEVs represented just 1.9% of total vehicle sales, slightly down from July. That compares with a 9.4% market share among battery-electric vehicles and 10.7% among hybrids, reports J.D. Power.

Perhaps the key to moving lower-priced vehicles is not about advertising or marketing but reconditioning.

“There’s a very small segment of inexpensive cars that are in decent looking shape,” says Phillips, a former dealership executive and National Automobile Dealers Assn. 20 Group leader. “If the car is maintained and looks good, the mileage is almost secondary.”

In fact, some dealers have had great success selling high-mileage cars when they recondition them as close to purchase as possible and advertise them online.

“Sometimes they’ll get traffic on it,” says Phillips. “But sometimes they get traffic that isn’t looking for that car but something else.”

Either way, it’s a win-win for the dealership.

Of course, that system doesn’t work in every market.

“We’re selling some EVs, but it is still a small percentage of overall sales,” Tyler Corder, chief financial officer, Findlay Automotive Group, headquartered in Henderson, NV, just outside Las Vegas, tells WardsAuto. “The two main objections are that they are more expensive than comparable ICE (internal-combustion engine) cars and range anxiety. We are seeing some people interested in EVs as a second vehicle but very few as the only vehicle.”

Another consumer concern in that market is that Las Vegas is “300 miles from anywhere, so very few people are comfortable heading out on a road trip in an EV,” Findlay says.

There are exceptions, of course, but that mainly involves consumers at the Las Vegas dealerships rather than those at the dealerships in St. George, UT, and Prescott, AZ, Corder says.

So, what does this mean for other dealerships?

Brent Gruber, executive editor, EV Practice, J.D. Power, suggests dealerships show consumers the lifetime savings they will make if they invest in an EV.

“I think the biggest thing for dealers to do is ensure that consumers understand the total cost of ownership for the different types of vehicles,” Gruber tells WardsAuto. “When it comes to EVs, it goes beyond the upfront price.”

Dealers can consider some of the points from the recent study to best understand potential consumer roadblocks and then develop strategies to overcome them. Here are some pertinent ones: