Younger shoppers have become accustomed to buying anything they want online, and won't have patience for long visits to brick-and-mortar stores, he said.
For car companies, there are pros and cons to both the direct sales and dealerships. The direct-to-consumer sales model used by startups like Tesla and Rivian create a more streamlined approach to automotive retail and gives the company more control over pricing and customer experience.
sälja begagnad bilHowever, without an established retail network, Tesla in particular has struggled with vehicle maintenance and repairs. Newer startups like Rivian and Lucid are discovering that the messy business of putting a car in a customer's driveway could cost them revenue in the short term.
Companies like GM and Ford are trying to strike a balance between direct sales and the dealership model. At Ford, that has meant implementing no-haggle EV sales standards for dealerships to agree to before they can begin selling popular cars like the Mustang Mach-e and F-150 Lightning.
This approach, which requires a minimum buy-in of $500,000 from dealers, has courted some controversy. A lawsuit filed by New York dealers late last year accuses Ford of violating franchise laws with illegal pricing requirements and unlawful allocation systems. Still, two-thirds of Ford dealers have signed on for the program, according to CEO Jim Farley.
"We want to work with our dealers, but there are certain things our customers want that are non-negotiable," Farley said at a conference in December, referring to an increasing preference among car shoppers to buy without haggling.
With the launch of the Cadillac Lyric, GM used a digital retail network that allows car shoppers to complete transactions entirely online, in the dealership, or a hybrid of both. GM rolled out the platform en masse with Cadillac and will expand to other brands as more EVs arrive, president Mark Reuss said in a recent interview.
"If you want to go see it or touch it, or drive it, you can still do that," Reuss said. "Whether you buy it that way or not is up to you."
