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Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

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Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#21

Post by phinnaeus »

datalopers wrote: post #16
phinnaeus wrote: post #2

I'm surprised they see spending less on advertising as part of their EV strategy. Copying Tesla in that regard might not work out the way they want it to. IMO Non-Tesla EVs are already facing an uphill awareness battle.

I think you’re drastically underestimating how immensely popular the Ford F-150 is. Every single person who wants a truck knows about the F-150 and I’d wager the vast majority who may purchase an EV know about the F-150 Lightning or will find out as they start hitting the streets and they see them in parking lots and at stoplights.

But what percentage of those F-150 owners know there is an EV version? Or put another way, how many of them can you convert to an EV version with effective advertising?

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#22

Post by Rapzid »

fnordpiglet wrote: post #12
leereeves wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was an article here on HN about the Ford Lightning a few days ago, and now this one. I think their free marketing strategy must be working if it's even reaching the HN crowd, which is not really a traditional market for Ford pickups.

Quoted post unavailable.

Fuck yeah!

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#23

Post by mikeyouse »

skellera wrote: post #19
DennisP wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla's "dealers" won't sell you a car. They'll service it, and take you on a test-drive, but when it comes time to order, you still go to the website.

There are still a lot of showrooms that do nothing but “sell” cars. Tesla uses their model to have locations in major upscale malls. I assume Ford will follow a similar model for EVs.

The Fashion Square mall in Scottsdale has a Tesla, Polestar and Rivian showroom already, I suspect you're right and Ford will be on the way shortly.

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#25

Post by monkeybutton »

thinkingkong wrote: post #14
ww520 wrote: post #6

Are the dealerships going to sue Ford? It will be interesting to watch.

What would they sue them for?

Yeah the thought of this is wild to me. "Distribute your product through us or else" in a free market?

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#26

Post by eatonphil »

phinnaeus wrote: post #21
datalopers wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you’re drastically underestimating how immensely popular the Ford F-150 is. Every single person who wants a truck knows about the F-150 and I’d wager the vast majority who may purchase an EV know about the F-150 Lightning or will find out as they start hitting the streets and they see them in parking lots and at stoplights.

But what percentage of those F-150 owners know there is an EV version? Or put another way, how many of them can you convert to an EV version with effective advertising?

At some point the f150 may be only electric? So maybe advertising isn't so important if people just want the model regardless of the engine.

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#27

Post by kcb »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #11

Tesla may not be the future of EVs, but we have to thank them for dragging everyone else into the present.

> Tesla may not be the future of EVs

Based on what metric? I have a hard time looking at Tesla's sales, revenue, profit, production capacity growth and not thinking they will continue to be a leader in EVs far into the future.

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#28

Post by fnordpiglet »

eatonphil wrote: post #4

The article ended just as it got good. What exactly does fixed price sales mean and why can't dealerships do that? What is Ford's plan for dealerships? Tesla has dealerships too right? I walked past the one in Red Hook Brooklyn. Or maybe that was just servicing? But they did have new cars there. And why won't Ford be advertising EVs? Super bowl ads always have car commercials. How else are they going to be able to te…

Tesla, at least in seattle, has a few demonstration rooms where you can see the cars and drive them and a human facilitates. Purchases though are done online. Service is done at largish service centers far from the demonstration rooms that are in pretty expensive places, like luxury shopping malls or SLU.

Fixed price means what it says - no negotiation, just a fixed price.

Advertising is probably unnecessary. Word of mouth more than exceeds their production capacities.

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#29

Post by fnordpiglet »

kcb wrote: post #27
LeoPanthera wrote: post #11

Tesla may not be the future of EVs, but we have to thank them for dragging everyone else into the present.

> Tesla may not be the future of EVs Based on what metric? I have a hard time looking at Tesla's sales, revenue, profit, production capacity growth and not thinking they will continue to be a leader in EVs far into the future.

Does speculation require a metric?

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#30

Post by peter422 »

I recently bought a Prius Prime and the amount of work I had to do to buy it at MSRP was ridiculous. If you have an oversubscribed car the dealer model just doesn’t work.

If car companies are going to compete in the future they will have to either eliminate dealers or at least force some type of structure to the sales process, otherwise people will gravitate to the companies that do (like Tesla).

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