31 October 2011

With more and more ‘normal’ electric cars joining the market, following the launch of Nissan Leaf almost a year ago, the manufacturers are thinking more about how they market them. And one big part of the push is low running costs.

So, not only are manufacturers selling EVs on their low fuel costs, but also the low servicing costs. On the Kangoo and Fluence electric car launch recently Renault made a big thing about servicing costs for its electric vehicles being 20% lower.

Great (at least initially) for the driver but for you, as a retailer, that’s not just going to hit aftersales turnover, it’s going to hit profit and overhead absorption too. With the logical extreme of this being that dealership survival will put at risk, it does nothing to help the customers either. A neat circle.

Speaking to one retail group last week confirmed this line of thinking. They didn’t think there was any money in electric cars for about five years; their main point being the electric vehicle parc wasn’t large enough to support a profitable aftersales operation.

Dealerships will want to see what those manufacturers with electric vehicles will do to address this shortfall. Like the low-energy bulbs that are now compulsory, it could take a while for the electric car market to brighten up for the retail sector.

Tristan Young

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Tags: aftersales, electric cars, Nissan Leaf, opinion, overheads, servicing costs, This Week