[ref http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-Joel-and-Melissa-went-Focus-Electric-when-will-you-tp4661262.html EVLN: Joel and Melissa went Focus Electric -- when will you? ]
I went an older Ford dealership I have been monitoring and was disappointed at their change in EV interest. While all dealerships are not the same, this one now sets a tone I hope is not found at other Ford dealerships: apathy towards plugins in general. As I walked through their small service area parking lot, the unmarked parking spot with the EVSE mounted on the wall next to the Service Dept.'s door was blocked with an ice, and a tall pallet of sticky plastic wrapped replacement ice parts for restocking was in the spot next to it (shows you not only their attitude but their ambivalence). As I turn to head into the showroom, I see the other Leviton/Ford EVSE mounted on the wall near the showroom door. It has not been used as I can see dust and cob webs on the j1772 cable and coupler. As I enter the showroom, I see the vehicles on display inside have been changed, but there is a lot more room available that before. What has changed? They took out the Focus EV. Within a few minutes a couple of sales reps walked in and asked if I wanted help. I asked them where the Focus EV was. They said it was out in their far outside parking lot (they did offer to walk me out to show it to me). Interestingly, they did not ask to show me the Ford Fusion hev (as in the past). It was not in their showroom, nor did they have a Ford's Energi pih. After talking a minute or so, one of the reps spied an ice sale and excused themself to garner some commission.That was my clue to end the conversation as I was going to likely lose the other one soon enough (if you aren't buying anything, I'll find an excuse to get-busy elsewhere). The chat ended by them saying, 'there are so few (EVs), we just do not carry many of them', ... yes, if a customer orders an EV online, they can pick it up here' ... Ford Corporate maybe making an effort, but this one little and old dealership is not that interested in plugins (they weren't much interested before, and a lot less now, even though that dealership bought the $5k Corp. tool-set to support plugins). Something has changed. What do they know that the public does not? I will likely not use this dealership as an example in the future. I will need to go visit a larger and newer Ford dealership that will surely reflect Ford Corp.'s positive plugin attitude (as they have stated in many PR newswires). But it is scary, this dealership's quick change reminds me of the 1990's hesitation to produce EVs Automakers had, just to have GM make their announcement that they were not going to produce EVs (then all other Automakers stopped too). Its like all the Automakers already knew GM's game-plan in their back-room talks they were having. Lets all pray we don't get fooled again ... For all EVLN posts use: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/template/NamlServlet.jtp?macro=search_page&node=413529&query=evln&sort=date {brucedp.150m.com} -- http://www.fastmail.fm - Faster than the air-speed velocity of an unladen european swallow _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
