If EV buyers hate going to the dealership to buy a car, why are some OEM's mandating dealers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to install publicly facing chargers?
As chargers become more widespread, chargers at dealerships are unfortunately destined to become chargers of last resort.
Would an EV buyer rather charge their car while shopping at Target / having a meal at Chipotle - or would they rather sit in a dealership parking lot fearing they may get hounded by salespeople at any moment?
And if most EV drivers only need to charge while away from home on road trips, why not just mandate that only dealers within 1 mile of an expressway have publicly accessible chargers?
What if installing chargers became an LMA initiative at the Tier 2 level instead? Local dealers could pool together their funds with OEM and government support to install charging stations at off-site locations that are actually desirable and convenient for customers.
Seeing an OEM-branded charging station in front of a Wal-Mart next to the highway is going to sell far more EV's for that brand and accelerate adoption by alleviating range anxiety and making charging more convenient than seeing chargers at a dealership that many customers dread going to.
Tesla has proven that the better the charging experience people have, the faster EV adoption will grow.
