The dealers’ revolt against the electric car. The Buick case
In order not to adapt their infrastructure to the needs of on-tap mobility, 50% of Buick dealers preferred to leave the franchise. The US brand will face the challenges of the ecological transition from 2024 with just 1000 retailers in all 50 American states
2023 has not been an easy year for the electric car, as it is known in full ' bubble '. A situation that has led many car manufacturers to stall on their projects relating to the ecological transition and to an unusual revolt by US dealers.
THE BUICK DEALERSHIP REVOLT
All this is happening these days in the USA, where around 50% of Buick dealerships have broken with the parent company in the portfolio of General Motors, accusing the Detroit Group of tyrannical behavior in the management of the franchise in view of the transition towards electric propulsion.
According to what was reported by the Detroit Free Press newspaper, General Motors, in addition to not helping the dealers, asked Buick to demand particularly expensive investments from its dealers to adapt their infrastructure to the arrival of the new electric cars.
THE REQUEST FROM THE MOTHER HOUSE
These are figures that fluctuate between 300 and 400 thousand dollars. A request promptly returned to Buick by half of its dealers. And the ultimatums of the US manufacturer were of no avail because the dissidents preferred to leave the franchise, arguing that to recoup the expense they should be certain of selling tens of thousands of electric cars immediately while the market for plug-in cars, as is known, it also languishes in the USA.
It is also underlined that this situation would be unsustainable not only for the smaller dealers but above all for those located in states still hostile to electric cars, in which no investments have been made in the infrastructure or in which in any case the mentality of the population – especially in rural areas – does not allow predicting big deals. Retailers also remember that car manufacturers benefit from government incentives decided at federal and national level to switch to new technology, while no aid of any kind is foreseen for dealerships.
RETAILERS ASK FOR INDEPENDENCE
A modern re-enactment of the famous "tea tax" which started the revolt of the US colonists and which could have equally disruptive consequences for the US brand. In fact, Buick will launch the first electric models in the coming months, later than many other brands and will certainly not be able to face the challenges of the transition by losing half of its branded dealers. The brand will have just a thousand official retailers left spread across all 50 American states.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/la-rivolta-dei-concessionari-contro-lauto-elettrica/ on Sun, 31 Dec 2023 06:52:44 +0000.