Ford’s EV plans haven’t exactly gone according to, well, plan. Late last year, Ford started to rethink the billions it poured into EVs as sales started to slow and scaled back its European EV plans. Then the company revealed that it loses over six figures on each EV it sales. Then the automaker announced it was doing something it should have done all along: Developing cheaper EVs. The next phase to stanch the bleeding, Reuters reports, is Ford ditching dealer sales requirements for EVs.
Ford was pretty selective when it came to letting dealers sell the F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-e. Under it’s Model e program, Ford required hundreds of thousands — sometimes millions of dollars — in dealer investment in things like dealer tech training and chargers before the automaker would let dealers sell its EVs. Hundreds of dealers dropped out of the plan, refusing to invest, while thousands of others got on board.
Now, effective July 1, Ford has announced that all its dealers can sell EVs, regardless of whether or not they joined the Model e program. Chief operating officer for Ford’s Model e Marin Gjaja said this makes EVs more accessible for dealers and customers.
“We want to make these great vehicles more accessible to everyone. There is always a learning curve with a new technology and introducing EVs in a simple, hassle-free way helps to remove many of the perceived barriers our dealers and customers are concerned about,” he added.
The dealers that did invest in the Model e program however are understandably pissed. These dealers told Reuters that they’ve been having trouble selling the brand’s EVs. Some dealers sales have slowed so much that they’re actually refusing shipments of Mach-Es and Lightnings from Ford.
Scott Kunes, COO of a Midwest dealer group that sells Ford vehicles among several other brands, was one of the 1,400 dealers who joined the program. He had concerns about EV demand, though, so his group only made the investment for their two largest Ford locations in Wisconsin and Illinois.
“The dealers have been kind of screaming from the sidelines for a while here that the EV demand is just not there,” Kunes said. While he’s glad Ford took the step they did, “it’s still a little bit too late.”
In December of 2022 Ford’s CEO Jim Farley announced that nearly 2,000 dealers had joined the Model e program. But back in November of last year, Ford made changes to the program to allow dealers who had already bought in off the hook from their contractual obligations. In response, hundreds of dealers jumped ship after seeing the writing on the EV wall early.