Half of Ford and Buick dealers balk at investing in EVs, citing high costs, underperforming sales

[Note: This story was written by Kevin Killough for JustTheNews.com]

Experts say that automakers and the federal government grossly overestimated consumer interest in the vehicles. “The government can’t really dictate everything it wants to dictate to the market. Seems to me we have to learn this lesson in the United States every 10 to 20 years," said energy writer and analyst David Blackmon.

As automakers go along with top-down federal regulations that are pushing America’s drivers to transition to electric vehicles, a bottom-up revolt from consumers continues, with the dealerships stuck in the middle. Approximately 1,550 Ford dealerships — about half the total in the U.S. — won’t be selling and servicing electric vehicles in 2024, the Detroit Free Press reported Thursday.

General Motors is facing dealers who don’t want to commit to the transition to all-electric lines. Half of all Buick dealers took buyouts this year rather than make the investments needed to sell and service the brand’s electric vehicles, which the Free Press reported in December 2022 cost the businesses up to $400,000.

A GM spokesperson told the Free Press that the automaker was offering “dealers who are not aligned with Buick’s future to exit voluntarily in a respectful and structured way.” Audi is scaling back its rollout of electric models to avoid burdening factories and dealerships who aren’t getting the sales volume needed to move the vehicles, Bloomberg reported. Audi plans to produce 20 models by 2026, half of which will be fully electric.