Are electric vehicles being fairly marketed to the public, or are dealerships and manufacturers trying to discourage you from buying their electric cars?

With electric vehicles coming to market from dealers such as Tesla, Nissan, Chevy, and others, competition is beginning to increase with these brands that are trying to market their vehicles to consumers with their technology, affordability, and safety. You may think that dealerships and manufacturers who sell these electric vehicles are doing whatever is necessary to sell these zero-emission vehicles, but you may be surprised that this is not always the case.

First, let briefly discuss gas combustion engines. They require gasoline to operate. And most of all, they have to go in for frequent routine maintenance that requires changing spark plugs, changing the oil, and other mechanical parts that have a tendency to break. Well, dealerships and manufacturers make a profit from those repairs, and that profit covers their “bottom-line” and pays for the salaries and benefits of employees (Deaton, 2019).

Now, with an electric vehicle, think of the opposite.  Think of rarely going into a dealership for regular maintenance other than maybe a tire rotation.  This is the situation because electric vehicles have fewer moving parts that often break.  From a marketing communication perspective, this presents an issue, not for the consumer who benefits from not spending money on repairs, but for the dealerships and manufacturers that are losing profits in this area with electric vehicles. The only brand that seems to come out on top in the area of its marketing communications is Tesla, that brand does not necessarily have a marketing department!

Dealerships and their manufacturers are hesitating to sell the electric vehicles because they know that it will hurt their bottom lines, and they can sell more SUVs and trucks with a nicer profit on sales and the reoccurring maintenance profits from those consumers as well (Deaton, 2019).  This is the position maintained by  manufacturers such as Ford, Chevy, and Chrysler who spend their marketing dollars on SUVs and trucks, which is a good portion of their profits (Muller, 2019). A question to consider is when was the last time you saw a major automaker advertise  their electric vehicles, either on Television or some other type of major communications platform, asking consumers to go out and grab an electric vehicle from their lot?

References:

Deaton, J. (2019).  Car dealerships put in a lot of work to not sell you an electric car. Fast Company.Retrieved fromhttps://www.fastcompany.com/90294305/car-companies-put-in-a-lot-of-work-to-not-sell-you-an-electric-car.

Muller, D. (2019).Automotive News. Light trucks take a record 69% of U.S. market. Retrieved from https://www.autonews.com/sales/light-trucks-take-record-69-us-market.