At a crucial second in the course of the Cuban Missile Disaster 60 years in the past, President John F. Kennedy wished to separate reality from fiction.
He famously turned to his advisers and stated, “There’s a whole lot of noise on the market!” Though registering a lot decrease on the significance meter, the identical can actually be stated of Ford Motor Co.’s Mannequin e EV Certification Program.
In September, Ford rolled out the blueprint for the certification program at its nationwide seller conferences in Las Vegas. It’s a wide-ranging guideline on what sellers have to do to promote and repair Mannequin e autos. It has two ranges of certification that contain two totally different ranges of funding. It is essential to grasp how Ford acquired thus far.
On March 2, Ford introduced that it could splitting the interior combustion enterprise and the electrical automobile enterprise into separate models. The ICE unit could be referred to as Ford Blue, and the EV unit could be Mannequin e. As part of the announcement, Ford acknowledged that sellers could be the distribution community for Mannequin e, an endorsement of the franchise seller mannequin.
Ford CEO Jim Farley stated that the corporate was “doubling down” on its sellers. He stated whereas many questioned why Ford wasn’t going the direct gross sales route with EVs, the seller community gave the corporate an absolute aggressive benefit over the likes of the Teslas of the world.
After that announcement, senior management at Ford launched into a nationwide listening tour for over three months. They performed over 40 conferences, assembly with greater than 400 sellers nose to nose. The purpose of the listening tour was to get seller enter and suggestions as the corporate labored to craft what the Mannequin e enterprise mannequin would seem like. Ford additionally engaged with the Nationwide Ford Supplier Council, in addition to different Ford advisory boards.
It’s our view, that though the blueprint that was introduced in Las Vegas is much from excellent, it’s a significantly better place to begin than the place many different automakers are going. Not solely are new automakers comparable to Tesla, Lucid and Rivian embracing the direct gross sales mode, however another legacy automakers are experimenting with nontraditional fashions.
Though we acknowledge there are issues amongst some sellers and state associations, we imagine that Ford is on the appropriate path. The blueprint just isn’t excellent, however most of the issues and conspiracy theories are primarily based on inaccurate info or a lack of awareness of the fundamental tenets of this system. One of many misunderstandings is that Ford will “set the worth” to prospects on Mannequin e. That’s merely not true and could be, in truth, unlawful in all 50 states. One other miscommunication is the e-commerce piece of Mannequin e’s come to market technique. Whereas it’s true that elements of the gross sales course of will undergo an e-commerce instrument, that instrument is linked to the seller. Each time. On a regular basis. Each Mannequin e bought will likely be bought by means of the seller. The e-commerce instrument has zero impact on that.
The blueprint just isn’t the end line however slightly the place to begin. A lot work will have to be achieved between now and when the Mannequin e Certification Program goes reside in 13 months. The feasibility of a 24/7 Ford dealership charging community is problematic and will likely be mentioned in earnest between the corporate and Ford’s Nationwide Supplier Council. The effectiveness of the e-commerce instrument is a piece in progress. That idea has been a tough one to get proper for over a decade. It’s our view that there will likely be many modifications and modifications to the certification program between now and when it goes reside. The satan is all the time within the particulars.
A very powerful piece of the Mannequin e marketing strategy is that it endorses the franchise system. With out that, nothing else would matter. The techniques and processes are in place to work collectively, the sellers and Ford, to proceed the arduous work of creating this a profitable program for all. The Nationwide Supplier Council and Ford’s different seller advisory boards are made up of the very best Ford sellers within the nation. Sellers have to proceed to work along with the corporate to give attention to the challenges that lie forward because the electrification of our trade continues.
Make no mistake, we’re at a focus in our trade. With electrification coming, automakers are selecting sides: direct-sales mannequin or franchise mannequin. This can be a struggle for the way forward for the franchise mannequin, and we imagine that every one sellers ought to acknowledge it as such and lend their help to automakers like Ford which are doubling down on their sellers. It is time to lower by means of the noise.