Chevrolet Volt Has Sold Impressively Out Of One Canadian Dealership

We’ve heard many a dealership fret over the idea of selling a plug-in vehicle such as the Chevrolet Volt, yet the Bourgeois Chevrolet in Rawdon, Quebec has sold a record 287 electrified vehicles for the 2015 year. 192 new and 95 used models, to be specific. In total, the sales of the hearty EREV tally up to about 40 percent vehicle sales for the dealership. This isn’t counting the 43 pre-sold 2016 Volts and 33 pre-sold 2017 Bolt EV models, which aren’t even available yet.

Aside from a few clever business strategies, Jeanson Bourgeois, a co-owner of the dealership, tells Automotive News reporters that the electric vehicles essentially sell themselves if customers get to actually experience them. While it can take up to four times longer to sell an EV, the dealership doesn’t even bother with advertising them. Instead, the dealership allows customers to have an extended test drive, leaving the vehicle with them for up to three or four days.

“It’s the best marketing we could do,” Bourgeois noted in the report. “There are a lot of misconceptions but they realize they can do everything they want. At the end of the week, they just want one.”

As for business practices, well, the biggest difference to us is that the Bourgeois dealership pays its sales reps with a salary, rather than commission. The team is also hard at work searching the continent for every worthy Volt, including unwanted new models from other dealerships and used models from auctions. In fact, there are usually at least 30 to 40 used Volts on-site. To top it off, every dealership employee is said to be a trained EV expert. As a matter of fact, 17 out of 30 employees have their very own Volts, and the dealership itself has 25 240-volt charging stations with 8 more on the way.

Maybe that’s all that’s needed to sell more electrified vehicles. By way of the people whom actually own them and enjoy them.