49% of sales teams say dealers are unimpressed by electric vehicles

Even as automakers slow their push into electric vehicles amid slowing demand, car buyers have more EV choices than ever before, and that selection is only going to grow in the coming years. But a new survey shows dealers aren’t ecstatic about the prospect of selling all those new electric cars.

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CDK Global surveyed 250 large dealerships nationwide and found that 49% of sales teams have no interest in selling electric vehicles. This is the national average. Dealers in some regions, such as the South, have shown little interest in selling electric vehicles.

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Only 12% of dealers in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky said their sales teams were moderately or very excited about selling EVs. But some Northern dealers also seemed uninterested, and even in the Pacific region, which includes California, only 10% of dealers said they were very excited.

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Reasons for the sales team’s lack of enthusiasm include local geography, long distances between towns and a patchy charging infrastructure, which makes it harder to convince car buyers that electric vehicles are a viable alternative to internal combustion engine vehicles. Likewise, dealers in colder states say winter weather can make customers’ concerns about range worse.

The bottom line is that dealers aren’t keen on selling electric vehicles because they know many drivers don’t want them. But CDK says the situation could improve if both sides better understood the advantages and disadvantages of electric vehicles.

The study found that dealer interest in selling EVs was lower in Southern states, with only 24% of dealer sales teams saying they were well-trained to understand and sell EVs. But in New England, dealer interest in selling EVs was highest, with 83% claiming they were well-trained.

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Data/Chart: CDK Global