Although several carmakers – mostly spearheaded by government policies – had a clear roadmap for their transition to electric vehicles (EVs), things didn’t turn out quite as expected in the real world. Ford, among others, had issued an electric vehicle commitment program to get its dealers up to speed for selling EVs.
In a nutshell, for a Ford dealer to be certified (and allowed) to sell EVs, it had to adhere to a strict set of criteria, including massive investments linked to training, garage bays, repair equipment, and, perhaps more importantly, charging infrastructure. Sadly, these investments ended up costing dealers more than the profits they generated, as EVs didn’t sell as expected. At least, not to Ford’s expectations. Now Ford is offering to pay back its dealers for these investments.
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Up To $240,000 In Reimbursements
According to an official report from Automotive News, which obtained a bulletin sent by Ford to its retailers, the automaker will pay back its dealers up to $240,000 over the investments they made to continue selling the Ford EVs, particularly the F-150 Lightning, Mustang Mach-E and E-Transit. Dealers are presented with different options on how to claim reimbursement. The final amount will depend on how many chargers they installed, and how many EVs they sold.
Option one is for Ford to give dealers $10,000 per level 3 fast charger installed, plus an additional $2,000 per EV retailed through 2026, with a maximum of $80,000 for each charger. The second option, particularly aimed at dealers who asked for more time to sell EVs, is that Ford adds another $1,750 per vehicle retailed through 2027, with the same $80,000 cap per charger. In both cases, the final payout would equate to $240,000 anyway because Ford had required dealers to install as many as three
The third option is to give dealers immediate payments of $40,000 per level 3 charger installed, up to $120,000. However, this option does not include a refund for each EV sold. It appears to be better suited for smaller, rural dealerships that don’t anticipate selling many EVs in the near future and want the refund faster. A Ford spokesperson told Automotive News that the first payments went out last year.
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Ford Dealers To Invest Less In EVs
For the Ford National Dealer Council (FNDC), these payments come as a welcome gesture in response to what it considers to have been a big financial risk for retailers. It also puts Ford in front of a reality check that its EV roadmap may not end up going as originally planned.
Ford has gotten a little bit of a bad rap, I believe, but when you look back, I have multiple brands, and Ford is the only reimbursement program. It’s the dealers’ job to always ask for more, but I think it’s only fair to recognize that we made the request, and they’ve acted upon it.
– Eddie Stivers, chairman of the FNDC.
Ford acknowledged its bullish expectations towards EV adoption and has stepped back to give its dealers more space so they can adapt to this rapidly changing market. Although Ford EVs did rather well last year, with an impressive 97,865 vehicles sold – a 35-percent increase over the previous year – it’s still way beyond Ford’s original expectations.
As a result, the carmaker put an end to its EV retail certification program last July after facing serious backlash from a majority of state dealer associations. There were also numerous lawsuits from dealers arguing that Ford couldn’t legally prevent them from selling EVs if they didn’t sign up for the program. Ford CEO Jim Farley took control of the situation by attending a series of meetings on the matter. A total of 1,000 retailers were dealt with during these meetings.
What came out of this is a completely different direction from Ford which, going forward, will ask its dealers to spend a minimal amount of money on charging infrastructure, prioritizing level 2 units instead. Dealers are still asked to invest in training through the virtual Ford University platform, which is a considerably less costly mandate.
