However a pure electric company that has established itself in another country, THAT can potentially give Tesla a run for its money!
This will be interesting to watch.
I'm not convinced by this. Nissan's been selling the Leaf for 8 years now. All manufacturers are moving to non-ICE cars because they have to. Customers want them and legislation has been introduced in various countries and cities which will ban ICE cars in future. Aston Martin, for example, has an electric conversion program so you can keep driving your vintage car after the bans are introduced:
https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/classic-cars/a25414...
Dealerships are going to have to sell electric cars or stop being in the car dealership business.
What probably will happen though is that the auto mechanic industry as a whole will contract as electric vehicles become more common.
I bought my used 2013 leaf at a sticker price of around ~9,500 USD before taxes and fees. A few months in, I began to experience an issue with the braking system. After depressing the brake pedal and slowing to a stop, the pedal would sink slowly, and the car could creep forward again until I applied more pressure. After enough cycles of this I'd have pushed the pedal all the way down, and there would be no way to hold the stop. I immediately set up an appointment with the local licensed Nissan dealer for maintenance, and began putting the car in park at intersections.
I noted that the brake fluid was very low, but not empty, when I brought the car in. I figured all it needed was to be refilled, but there were some other minor squawks I wanted to have them look at.
After service, the rep sat me down and explained that the part that balances brake force between the regenerative and friction braking systems "had failed", and this part was going to cost nearly $2000 to replace. He clearly represented to me that the maintenance mechanics had uncovered a problem with this part, that it was failed, and absolutely necessary to replace. I paid for the appointment and said I'd have to think about the replacement part.
I looked over the paperwork very carefully and there were no error codes in the testing results. I've been driving the car for over a year since with no issues. The problem with the brake pedal resulted from low brake fluid, which they topped off during the maintenance.
I've resolved not to take the car to the dealer for any issue unless I absolutely can't handle it myself, which I'm guessing means "never".
So I definitely give credence to the idea that the electric cars are a threat to maintenance revenue.
Adding more fluid and bleeding the air out of the system may temporarily make it seem like there is no problem but if you note the level dropping then you ought to find the leak or you risk losing control of your vehicle and run in to some thing or some one. I can't believe it got so bad you were putting it in park at intersections. That is really dangerous!!
After all, if there is a leak in the system OP would not be able to drive the car for a year without the issue recurring.
If you top up the fluid at that point, everything will seem normal, but the pads will continue to wear until the friction material is entirely gone.
Sinking pedal while stopped can also be caused by leaking seals in the master cylinder.
So yes, low fluid level is either an indication of pad wear or a leak, it's not a normal condition and if you don't know the cause, you should take it to a shop that can check it out.
No, nothing will seem normal if your brake pads are worn out. Depending on your care your brake pads are designed in a way that an electrical signal is activated or they make a loud noise before they wear out completely.
every shop, from a dealer or not, will have a minimum figure of "repairs" to push on any customer that pass its door. they will tell you the steering rod is bent, the spark plugs need replacement, anything.
if anything, this is more reason to push electric cars because now there's a whole lot of parts the customer never heard about! not to mention the new battery homerun!
Interesting you should say that.
Virtually all dealerships actually run at a loss "selling cars" (front of house), and turn a profit from "fixing cars" (back of house).
Going back to your quote, there is no such thing as a profitable "Dealership business". There is only a profitable "fixing" business. I believe your prediction is correct, they will stop being in business.
The main drivers of dealership economics are sales revenue relative to local and national peers and cost/availability of wholesale/retail financing. Not a top dealer for your market? You're screwed. Regional recession? Screwed. Lender pulled your flooring? Screwed. It's suddenly illegal to charge usurious interest rates (and fees!) for $4k used cars? Joe Schmo can't get cheap financing for a $40k brodozer? You get it.
And since all dealerships will be in the same boat, they will all have to increase their markup so it won't be a problem for them. Either that or they will find new ways to hide the true costs of the vehicles.
You'll probably see a lot more leases. Complicated leases are a great way to squeeze extra money out of people.
That said, it is a lot easier for Tesla to sell direct than an established manufacturer with a network of dealerships to placate.
https://www.hyundaiusa.com/kona-electric/index.aspx
https://www.kia.com/us/en/content/vehicles/upcoming-vehicles...
How can Hyundai do that if the dealerships are a problem?
In my experience, the car they try to sell you is the one you are looking at.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/dealerships-dismiss-... provides evidence that I am right - and that in practice dealerships really do steer customers away from electric vehicles.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/25/norway-l...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_electric_vehicles_in_N...
If anything, the Digital Trends article serves to demonstrate how ineffective the dealerships are in persuading people away from electric cars. Other factors matter more.
That said, the fact that dealers do try to push customers away from electric provides a competitive opportunity for new entrants whose sales people aren't doing that. Which is going to be a challenge for established car companies.
I went to go look at a volt a few years ago when they were new because it was unclear from GM's (terrible) marketing of it whether it actually had limited range or whether it could run on gas alone.
The ads kept advertising its range, which I found odd if you could just refuel, and it wasn't clear if it needed some battery for the generator to work or not. It was early on so search results were inconclusive.
The dealer I went to didn't know anything about the car, if it could run on gas alone, how the generator worked, etc.
Tesla's move was smart - the dealership model won't survive the transition to autonomous EVs and if they don't go gracefully they'll probably take the old car manufacturers down with them.
Just look at GM - while they bought Cruise and have the long range (ugly) Bolt they've relegated the really great Cruise tech to only a few models with over complicated controls and they're not focused on the EVs. I'd guess somebody over there knows that this is an existential risk for them, but they need somebody at the top that understands it.
I have a Tesla Model 3. I work at a company that is heavily car involved, and you would be surprised at how many people don't realize it is all electric. There are people who still don't associate Tesla with cars!
Plus lets be honest, unless you own a Tesla your ability to take standard trips any petrol car can do is very limited and even with Tesla it gets limited in winter. I can see losses of twenty to thirty percent and I am just in the Southeast for temperature swings.
Yes dealerships will need to sell them but before that a large number of people need to want them. We haven't reached that point for many reasons, some include
1) cost 2) education 3) range (numbers are mild weather only) 4) not all vehicle types are represented 5) not much selection 6) the tech is barely ready 7) the charging system is not settled nor widespread
this list can go on and on and I am en EV owner/supporter.
as for the article, another company which hasn't gotten really to step 1 making declarations about the wonders that await us is nothing new, actually doing it will be the issue.
Seeing that Volvo has a lot of manufacturing in China it would be far easier to come in under a known nameplate but legacy brands have cost numbers well established and may be limited in how low they will aim
EV prices are going down due to falling battery costs, increasing economies of scale of manufacture, and improved understanding of how to design them. The experts say around 2023-2025 they will become as cheap as ICE vehicles, and then they will take over the market. Oh, and Tesla's big problem is working through its huge backlog of orders, and that is even though just started selling in Europe.
You know, you say you are an EV owner and supporter, but your comment is so negative I have doubts that is actually true.
Are those bans really going to be that strict? I would hope that they'd exempt genuinely collectable cars. From a preservation/living history perspective, it seems wrong to force such drastic modifications.
I realize that the legal protection were put in place to protect the smaller player from the global company that they are dependent on, but it's a good example of rules that are put in place and end up calcifying a whole industry, at the cost of all of us.
It would be nice if almost everything was included and if I didn’t have to haggle like some I’m at a flea market.
During the course of the lease, the dealership could increase the cost of the maintenance checkups, which they wouldn’t tell us the current cost of.
Then again, I don't know what goes wrong with an EV, or what kind of maintenance it really needs.
Feels like consumers could win on many fronts here.
Consumers will win on tons of fronts and a lot of dead jobs will be cut, and it'll be spun by a large contingency of people of increasing unemployment and hating the middle class more. That's generally what happens when actual pro-consumer stuff happens, and I expect this to especially be true regarding cars.