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The majority of Ford dealerships in the US have decided to plug into the automaker’s electric future, Ford CEO Jim Farley told Automotive News Congress on Monday.
At its annual dealer meeting in September, Ford told its dealers that individual stores would need to invest up to $1.2 million in upgrades to continue selling Ford EVs.
Dealers had a choice of Certified and Certified Elite upgrades, which Ford estimated at the time to cost around $500,000 for the Certified and between $1 million and $1.2 million for the Certified Elite. Dealers also had to agree to non-negotiable pricing.
Jim Farley
Farley announced that 1,659 stores chose the Certified Elite option, while 261 chose the Certified option, representing nearly two-thirds of the automaker’s approximately 3,000 stores in the country.
Farley also revealed that those dealers still sitting on the fence will have another option to opt into Ford’s electric future in 2025, acknowledging that the electric transition will take time.
Ford offered a similar ultimatum to its Lincoln dealers, though Farley did not mention the take rate at the luxury division’s stores.
During the Automotive News Congress, Farley also mentioned Ford’s plan to let customers order vehicles directly from the automaker online, thus bypassing dealerships, similar to the direct sales model popularized by Tesla. He says the future of the current franchise model hangs in the balance.
The stakes are pretty high for the automaker’s pivot to EVs with its retail network, Farley said:
“The future of the franchise system depends on the balance here.”
— Automotive News (@Automotive_News) December 5, 2022
General Motors offered buyouts to Cadillac dealers unwilling to get on board with that brand’s EV shift, with about one-third opting to give up their franchises rather than sell EVs, which would also require some level of additional investment. GM is also offering buyouts to Buick dealers, with both brands expected to go all-electric by the end of the decade.
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