Best practice for dealerships involved in selling and servicing electric vehicles (EVs) formed the focus of an exclusive webinar panel as part of Automotive Management’s EV Retailing Week.
The panel – available to watch online now – featured:
- Dave Marshall, head of distribution development at Black Horse.
- David Hawksworth, customer engagement director at Auto Trader.
- Alexander Millinger, senior sales manager, UK and APAC at AVILOO.
- Neil Tonks, group aftersales director at Pentagon Group.
- Jo Thomas, group sales director at Nathaniel Cars.
As the UK’s progress towards an EV-dominated car market by 2030 continues, dealerships are increasingly being expected to promote the benefits of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) as their level of production increases. This requires dealers to develop the confidence, competence and necessary resources such as internal charging facilities to be able to sell EVs – new and used – in higher volume.
Market opportunities
The panellists highlighted opportunities that dealers should be identifying in the market.
Hawksworth identified used EVs as the biggest opportunity for dealers.
“Fleet did a lot of the heavy lifting early in the adoption cycle,” he said.
“But now we’re seeing a healthy volume of that used EV flowing through onto the forecourts, and they are still selling significantly faster than the petrol equivalents.
“We saw in March a jump of 6.5% percentage points year-on-year for leads for EVs, which counts now for 20% of the total volumes, and for new that’s up 5.8% year-on-year to around 24% total new volumes.”
Marshall agreed on used EVs, adding: “People are more aware of EVs than ever, largely because of the fuel costs and broader political and economic backdrop.
“The dealers who will get ahead will build confidence early in the buying journey, keep the information really simple and consistent. They’ll be best positioned as used EVs become more prevalent.”
Meanwhile, Tonks pointed to aftersales services as another area for dealers to engage with.
He said: “Aftersales selling for EV is evolving from servicing vehicles to maintaining their condition and actual value.
“The revenues opening up to us are definitely SMART repairs, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), vehicle alignment – which particularly is underperforming or untapped in a lot of dealerships – and obviously tyres as well for retail.
“More focus and investment need to go into that, and also training.”
Overcoming misconceptions
As EVs are a recent market entrant, the panel noted that preconceptions about EV customers may not be up to date, and noted elements that should be considered.
Thomas explored the need for de-mystification when it comes to EV customers.
“We have to educate staff that it’s the fear of the unknown for customers,” he said.
“The minute we take all of the complicated jargon out, and realise that it’s just another vehicle – there’s nothing more complicated to it than buying a diesel or petrol vehicle – it’s more honest to make the customer understand how easy EVs are and how economical with the current climate for people trying to save money, it’s most definitely the way forward.
Hawksworth highlighted how retailers often approach EVs as another fuel type, but that customers do not necessarily share this view.
He said: “We have to approach EVs from the customer’s perspective, not from the product perspective, because we’ve got different questions, different concerns, different fears – their fears aren’t necessarily what we think they are.
“Range anxiety was always the big one, but I think now it’s what I’d call reliability anxiety.”
This opened discussion on how the industry can better explain the nuances of EVs to customers and avoid jargon.
Millinger suggested dealers make use of diagnostic tools, noting how test results for an EV can help to make customers more comfortable with a vehicle.
“This will support dealers,” he said.
“Because they just have to think about an EV, about the brakes, the battery, the body, the quality, and that’s it. So it’s not like an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle where you have all these different parts; you just need the result for the battery.
“You can talk normally to the customer, like an ICE vehicle, because you have the documentation that the car is good.”
Aftersales
Discussing aftersales, the panel examined where opportunities exist for profitability beyond the sale of a vehicle.
Tonks said: “There’s definitely a shift from being schedule-driven to being opportunity-driven.
“When a vehicle comes into the workshop, every vehicle needs to be checked for any SMART repair opportunities.
“There are quite a few software updates where, if the customer refuses the update over the air, then it needs to go into the workshop. So giving that customer the confidence that they should come in because the maintenance costs will reduce.”
Thomas added: “You’ve got things like software updates. You’ve got lots of leading manufacturers, such as Tesla and BMW, where they’ve integrated paid features, upgrades and subscriptions. I don’t see why everybody can’t follow suit.”
Pricing and charging considerations
When asked how dealers can maintain their margins on used car stock, panellists noted how important it is to understand your product and buyer.
“It’s constantly watching the market,” said Thomas.
“I think you have to be really savvy about what’s going on in the market, what’s popular and what’s current that that people are looking to purchase.”
Hawksworth emphasised that dealers need to maintain confidence in their pricing to attract buyers, highlighting how EVs are often significantly underpriced by independent dealers in comparison to franchised dealers.
He said: “Independents, as an average, underprice their EVs by about £2,500 per unit, versus £900 for franchises. This is on used rather than new.
“A lot of independents have a ‘get it gone’ mindset. They just want it off the forecourt, because they don’t want the risk. They’re not comfortable with the product. But pricing that cheaply, more or less, makes that stock invisible.”
Additionally, dealers were advised to make sure that vehicles are charged on-site.
Tonks said: “If you want to sell EV vehicles, then you’ve absolutely got to display that you’re in the game in terms of EV chargers on-site.
“If EV chargers are in the wrong place where customers don’t normally go, we need to put very clear signage that we got EV chargers on-site.”
Thomas added: “It’s exactly the same as having a full tank of fuel; we wouldn’t have an ICE car on site that was light on fuel.”
“I think it’s also really important to do a practical demonstration to ensure that customers can see for themselves how easy it is.”
Final thoughts: Futureproofing
The panellists reflected on how dealers can futureproof their businesses as EVs become more dominant in the market.
Marshall pointed to the advantage of speaking from experience.
“It’s about building EV confidence into people, processes, and finance,” he said.
“One example in doing that in terms of the team in the showroom, has everyone driven an EV? Is everyone charging? To talk real-life experience, rather than theory, is really powerful.”
Millinger advised any uncertain dealers to keep up in terms of EV sales.
He said: “If you’re not trading with EVs at the moment as a dealer, you have to start yesterday. Because the market goes in this direction you don’t want in a situation where you’re left behind and just have ICE vehicles on your venue.”
Meanwhile, Hawksworth pointed to the need for effective training and strategy.
“Train the staff on EV ownership, not just EV products,” he said.
“Build a disciplined, used EV forecourt strategy. Lean into the data and pricing and sourcing to build the same expertise and instinct.
“Then formalize the battery health process to make it part of that advertising standard.”
The full recording of this panel is available to watch now.
More insights and guidance on EVs are available as part of EV Retailing Week on the AM website.