Sell More EVs • Share Best Practices

[joe.pistell]

EVs are here to stay. The majority of EV shoppers are 1st time EV buyers. Our dealer websites have very poor EV support.

If you know of a dealer (franchised or indy) that's doing anything interesting that helps sell more EV's, please share!

p.s. sales reps need assistance too! A great EV sales tool helps both buyer and seller!

 

[joe.pistell]

This is a followup to @George Nenni's popular post on LI

George Nenni on LinkedIn: It's time for a paradigm shift in how we present electric vehicles… | 41 comments

 

[Alex Snyder]

Keep an eye on green incentives for your customers locally. In Vermont, most power companies are giving away Stage 2 chargers, electric bill credits, and/or cash incentives.

Green Mountain Power was giving a $2,000 cash rebate for buying an EV that one of the local Nissan dealers capitalized on. Freedom Nissan bought all the Ariyas they could get their hands on and ran a $5,000 one-pay lease special. That's been going on since April. The day I got mine, they were delivering six other Ariyas. The volume they're doing is insane. The Toyota store down the road could come very close to that on the comparable Toyota EV, and I have yet to see their name mentioned. Another Toyota dealer in Massachusetts is stealing their EV business right now with a $250 month lease.

 

[Carsten]

George makes some good points about info presentation but that's like flipping a switch from standard miles to metric kilometers.
Even for hybrids there is so much 1 sided information that I can't really compare.
How many miles can I drive on a Jeep GC ev hybrid?

EV issues:
range anxiety
charging stations
Is an EV really cheaper to drive mile to mile than an ice car.


Get creative and drive to the general area of the customer and then show them the nearest charging stations and how to actually charge the car.

 

[joe.pistell]

On the @George Nenni LI thread (above), saw the work of Lectium (an EV merchandising startup).

On Pulte Chevy, I saw 2 VDP widgets.
1). Two Range maps:



Wow, IMO, this is helpful to shoppers and sales reps.

2). An EV savings calc:


Lectrium: Sell EVs Faster with Data-driven Tools

DISC... err... DISEV? yes

 

[joe.pistell]

I filled out the lead form at Lectrium and the CEO Peter Barba quickly replied and we had a meeting.

He made me a mock for my pilot store (reymore.com). I like how the EV savings is parked under the Frikentech payment widget.


thoughts?

 

[Carsten]

That vehicles can't make it across the peace bridge. At least I can see my dad.
Go OJ! Go! - not the Bronco version.

Map: I have no idea how a QA person would allow that to happen.

I like the widgets. On the Pulte site, the savings one is hidden. I found it by accident. Maybe mobile it would pop up.

But what would really be cool is too see charging stations because that is what matters most to the user not the range. It would be cool to have a winter version if you do the range map. The chevy website has that map.

I like your layout better than Pulte's which has that scroller frame.

 

[PeteBarba]

Thank you for the thoughts / feedback! We are working to improve items like removing the scroller / faster map load times.

Regarding the decision of whether or not to show public charging stations on the map, my thoughts & decision to NOT show public chargers is below...

One of the most compelling "value-building" reasons to buy an EV is the ability to charge at home and not have to visit a gas station or rely on public chargers.

85% of EV charging happens at home (I know, tough for people who live in apartments or do not have a driveway....), and having a Level 2 charger at home makes filling the battery each night a breeze.

Adding public chargers to a map on a VDP may lead to more questions than answers....

• "Does a Tesla charger work on my Blazer EV?....."
• "How do I pay for public charging?"
• "Does the EV come with any free charging credits?"
• "How long does this take to charge in public?"

Meanwhile, easing charging anxiety with a statement like "You can charge this fully every night at home, and it will go XYZ miles" leads to fewer questions and more conversions, we believe.

Public charging station locations are publicly available here: Alternative Fuels Data Center: Electric Vehicle Charging Station Locations

This can be added to other parts of a dealership website upon request, just I believe it is "too much" to be on the VDP.

 

[BillKVMotorCo]

My best tip so far: Lose your ass in them. That's it. That's the tip.

 

[Carsten]

@PeteBarba Thanks for the detailed reply and for the link!