General Motors is aiming to reach zero tailpipe emissions across its new light-duty vehicle line by the 2035 calendar year, with a plethora of new EV models just over the horizon. Naturally, to sell all those EVs, they first need to be available in dealer inventory. Now, according to a recent study, roughly two thirds of U.S. car dealers don’t have any EV in inventory.
Per an analysis from American non-profit environmental group Sierra Club, roughly 66 percent of U.S. car dealers don’t have an EV available to sell. The study, titled “Rev Up Electric Vehicles: A Nationwide Study of the Electric Vehicle Shopping Experience,” was based on data collected from more than 800 automotive dealer studies across the nation.
The study also indicates that roughly 45 percent of U.S. auto dealers reported that they were not interested in offering an EV for sale at all. However, of the 66 percent of car dealers that did not have an EV for sale, 44 percent reported that they would offer an EV if they could. Like the rest of the automotive industry, EV allocation has been affected by supply chain and inventory issues.
Notably, GM ranks mid-pack with regard to EV availability, as broken down by automaker. Mercedes-Benz had the best EV availability, with 90 percent of Mercedes-Benz dealers reporting that they had an EV for sale, while Toyota and Honda had the worst EV availability, with 11 percent of Honda dealers and 15 percent of Toyota dealers reporting that they had an EV for sale.
In the transition to selling EVs, GM is requiring dealers to make significant investments into on-site EV charging stations, new tooling, employee training, and more. The investments can total upwards of $200,000 or more. Some dealers unwilling to make the investment have been offered buyout deals, including some Cadillac dealers, as GM Authority covered previously.
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Comments
This isn’t really a problem for my local dealers because they don’t gain by having a Bolt sit for 3 months. The lack of Yukons, 4Runners, and Broncos are a bigger issue.
The only EV’s that sell around here are Teslas, and they don’t have dealers.
Why should anyone care what the Sierra Club thinks? This is still America, right? People can buy what they choose?
Diverse fuel options will win the day, not forcing people to buy into a one size fits all solution.
Is anyone surprised? All hype and no substance. There is not a market at this time.
Lack of stealership inventory is not a sign of limited demand, quite the opposite. There are no new Broncos or Raptors available at any of the 5 Ford dealers within 25 miles of my house, by your reasoning, that would imply there is no demand. The wait time for each is out to late summer or beyond depending on the trim. The same is true for compelling BEVs from legacy automakers – each one that trickles into a stealership is already sold, so it won’t sit on the lot, just like the Bronco doesn’t. No legacy automaker is remotely capable of scaling BEVs to meet the demand at this time and will remain battery constrained for years. There is an army of Elon haters that want a BEV from anyone not named Tesla. Somehow, despite lack of demand and limited models, Tesla breaks sales records each quarter and will sell 2M cars this year and the Model Y is currently and will remain the best selling vehicle in the world ahead of the RAV4, Corolla and F-150, etc. You can hate EVs and buy what you want, but there is WAY more BEV demand outside of your bubble, especially from younger generations. Tesla already easily outsells GM, Ford, Honda, etc in California and will likely surpass Toyota next year – Toyota has been #1 by a large margin since the 80’s and routinely sells more than GM+Ford in California, the US’ largest auto market by far.
Well said. Facts are facts. Ford had the guts to be transparent about how much they were losing per vehicle. If they are dealing with -108% margins, then what do you think the margins are for GM? You’ll hear nothing but crickets, because were the truth be publicly known, it would be a horror show. Lots of non-questions being posed to Mary Barra. Seems odd, isn’t it over the gross lack of execution? Look at the Q1 23 production numbers. Tesla delivered more than twenty times more vehicles than GM on a head to head comparison. They have margin and pricing power that legacy auto can only dream of. Tesla has their death star Giga Mexico under construction, with more to be built, in record time on the way. Yes, chickens always find a way of coming home to roost.
Ford had to split between between two division because they were late shifting to EVs. They have a lot more investing to do. GM has converted several plants already and in the process of building 3 of 4 battery favorites. GM cards are on the table. Ford is building one cell factory in the US S currently.