Ford going 100% online for EV sales

[SpaceYooper]

Will it actually happen?

https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a40175990/ford-online-sales-no-negotiation/

Ford Is Going to 100% Online, Fixed-Price Sales For EVs
CEO Jim Farley says direct delivery, zero negotiation, and fully online transactions are necessary for the brand's EV business.
BY MACK HOGAN
JUN 2, 2022

The Ford brand will transition to exclusively online, fixed-price, delivered-to-your-door sales for EVs, CEO Jim Farley said, according to USA Today.

"We've got to go to non-negotiated price. We've got to go 100 percent online. There's no inventory (at dealerships), it goes directly to the customer. And 100 percent remote pick up and delivery," he said during Bernstein's Annual Strategic Decisions Conference, per USA Today.

It's unclear if Ford also plans to implement this sales strategy shift for its non-EV products.

Farley went on to say that he sees the physical locations of dealers as a huge opportunity to push an edge over competitors, but that the current stores will have to radically evolve. Dealers can do it, he said, "but the standards are going to be brutal."

The fixed-price model has been trialed by countless new car dealerships, used car chains, and even manufacturers like Saturn. Yet it was Tesla that showed that a successful automaker could fully rely on fixed-price sales. The EV juggernaut also pioneered an online ordering system that so-called legacy automakers have been struggling to replicate. If Ford wants to be a huge player in this and take advantage of what Farley sees as a historically significant market-share land grab, the company has to adapt to give the customers what they want. Right now, as USA Today notes, Ford estimates that it spends $2000 more than Tesla per car on distribution.

The company also intends to massively scale back advertising for its EVS, another way it has to adapt. "If you ever see Ford Motor Co. doing a Super Bowl ad on our electric vehicles, sell the stock," he said.

For the full breakdown of Farley's remarks, check out the USA Today story which explores post-sales service, the role of the Super Duty and other gas guzzlers, EV profitability, custom cars for Uber and Lyft, Chinese EVs, and "very large consolidation."

Road & Track has reached out to Ford for additional comment and will update this story if we hear back.

Sponsored

 

[Friday]

"First they will ignore you, then they will criticize you, then they will try to copy you, then you will win".
(bastardized quote of a bastardized quote)

Thanks for proving it Ford.

GM, VW you're up, take your swing.

 

[Friday]

Also, won't this force states that prohibit direct sales to change the archaic, cronyism dealership laws that oppress Tesla?

 

[Throwcomputer]

*wants to go*

 

[CyberBC]

And no more supply of trade-ins. People will start shopping around for best price.

 

[CyberGus]

"Grandpa X Æ A-Xii, what's a Car Salesman?"
"No one knows, my boy. Your great-granddaddy Elon banished them long ago."

 

[GnarlyDudeLive]

My belief is Ford has no choice on the matter. If the dealers continue to slap 10k-20k market adjustments on the price, their offerings are not only lower spec'd but also higher priced. Nobody with 2 brain cells will buy their products. Doesn't mean that they still wont be purchased though, LOL.

 

[Sirfun]

OKAY no dealers at point of sale. But who's gonna service my Lightning when shit goes wrong?

Don't ya think those dealers are gonna be pissed when Ford takes money out of there pockets?

 

[Throwcomputer]

OKAY no dealers at point of sale. But who's gonna service my Lightning when shit goes wrong?

Don't ya think those dealers are gonna be pissed when Ford takes money out of there pockets?

You didn't read it.. cause what he says is he wants to turn the dealerships into service centers only.

 

[Deleted member 12457]

Several news stories have said exactly what you said. Dealerships don't make much of anything on the sale of a vehicle, except for what Ford dealerships are trying to do right now. Everything is made on add-ons, extremely high parts costs and service charges. Add there's the delivery charges and financing "deals" that make money.

As for delivery centers and the current dealer prep charges, the only thing they really do now is take the plastic protection stuff off, maybe wash the car and put some gas in it. Some people want to buy a car off the lot, others would be fine having it delivered to their house. I'd rather have my CT delivered to my house or go get it in Texas and have a fun trip home. Last place I want to go to is a dealership (delivery center) with the same crooked, sweet talking salesman trying to sell me more things before they let me have my vehicle.

 

[Throwcomputer]

Several news stories have said exactly what you said. Dealerships don't make much of anything on the sale of a vehicle, except for what Ford dealerships are trying to do right now. Everything is made on add-ons, extremely high parts costs and service charges. Add there's the delivery charges and financing "deals" that make money.

As for delivery centers and the current dealer prep charges, the only thing they really do now is take the plastic protection stuff off, maybe wash the car and put some gas in it. Some people want to buy a car off the lot, others would be fine having it delivered to their house. I'd rather have my CT delivered to my house or go get it in Texas and have a fun trip home. Last place I want to go to is a dealership (delivery center) with the same crooked, sweet talking salesman trying to sell me more things before they let me have my vehicle.

Agreed.. order it online and deliver it to me and I'm fine with that.. but a lot of older people want to see it in person and buy it and drive it home same day.

I've been working on convincing my father to get an electric vehicle for the past year and originally he was interested in the f150 lightning but when I told him it would be probably 3-5 years before he would see it he's since changed his mind and decided he would take a look at a Tesla sedan. But then he said he wanted to go to the dealership and test drive it and buy it to drive home same day, he couldn't understand when I told him that wasn't possible. He could test drive it with an appointment only, but still had to order online and wait months for it to be delivered.

It's clearly a better model for selling and delivering cars but there is still a large percent of the population that needs this in person transaction. We had computers when I was a kid as early as the late 80s and the internet really early 90's. My mother got it and gets it from the start. My father still can't use or understand the most basic things about computers even after being shown how to for the past 30+ years.

Perfect example I saw something similar last week at Disney world. I and my friends were on line for the new guardians of the Galaxy ride for the second time on day 2 of it being opened. We had gotten both the virtual queue seats and paid for lightning Lane seats.. so we got two rides that day. While we were waiting on line for the virtual queue seats for our second ride that day, we witnessed an old couple trying to get in the virtual queue line and the attendant kept telling them they couldn't get in line, they needed a virtual queue pass. They had no idea what the woman was talking about and couldn't understand why they couldn't just get in line with everyone else. At that point, I realized how unfair Disney's new way of doing ride lines is for technologically inept people and older people who don't use phones, phone apps, or computers in their daily lives so naturally. They had no chance of getting seats to ride that ride.. and could not understand why they weren't allowed to get in line.

Sure this stuff is easy and preferred for most of us.. but there are still a lot of people in the world that these digital systems alienate and make harder for them to participate in things like Disney world, or purchasing an electric vehicle, regardless of their desire to participate.

 

[Deleted member 12457]

My brother's son-in-law bought the new Volvo C40 Recharge, a limited mileage (at best 240 miles) reasonably priced (mid $50K), BEV built in Belgium. They only offer this vehicle online, no dealership. "Chinese-owned Swedish automaker Volvo dropped a couple of bombshells earlier today: first, it will only sell pure electric vehicles by 2030, and second, you will only be able to buy these EVs online." from several websites. If they are able to do this then Ford is able to do it and so should Tesla.

I forgot the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group bought Volvo, along with Lotus, Smart and a bunch of others I've never heard of. I have to wonder how much of this car is actually manufactured in China and assembled in Belgium. I'm still looking for BYD, which has a presence in California building buses, to either build an assembly plant or an actual manufacturing plant in the US to get around the 25% import tax.

 

[Crissa]

The problem with 'older people' that expect it 'today' is that requires alot of waste.

It requires there to be cars just sitting around, waiting for them to come, or not. It's just super-wasteful.

-Crissa

 

[MiguelAznar]

If a car is so poorly designed or manufactured that there is little demand, then, for a while at least, it should be possible to drive it home the same day

Sponsored