Navigating Dealerships and Help Wanted, EV Evangelists Needed!
VW is selling the ID.4 in the U.S., so how are they doing at dealerships? Plus, EV evangelists are needed, and Plugged In releases our 2021 EV glossary on Thursday.
This is a quick Tuesday post, as our EV glossary is coming Thursday (for paid subscribers) that will deliver a must-have reference for purchasing electric vehicles! An indispensable guide. Also, summer is almost here and EV road trips are starting to happen, see below from Don Burke heading to Custer, SD. And remember to follow us on Twitter, @PluggedInEV or Facebook via pluggedinevs.
ID.4
First, we have a dealer report via the discussion thread, Electric Vehicles from Reddit and /bmckwd. The user posted “Finally joined the club — ID.4 First Edition” and users came flooding in with comments on their experience with VW Dealers. “OrangeNomNom,” responded to a question from iracer46 on his purchasing experience.
“OrangeNomNom” wrote this:
I purchased mine — ID.4 — and the sales manager was pretty knowledgeable about EVs but at a base level (at least when it came to the car). I ended up getting CarNet and my free EA charging set up on my own (showed them how I did it faster than they could get me the promo code from EA) and was off to the races.
Their service side was much better equipped at handling EV related questions though. The dealer I purchased from had 2 technicians who were trained on the ID.4 so they had a better understanding of the car and were able to replicate the issues I was having, which was nice since they gave me an idea of what to expect, looped in VW Corporate (which they all have to do for any ID.4 issues), and I got a call from VW about the issue and that they would follow up with me regularly on any updates for the fix (the issue was a software issue related to scheduled charging).
Overall, this type of experience from a dealership is a win, be it from a legacy automaker — VW, GM, Ford, etc — or Tesla or Rivan. As the comment shows, the car buyer had an issue and support came from technicians and corporate.
As our legacy automaker guide shows, buyers should be aware of two things when buying EVs from established automakers in 2021:
1) Find a knowledgeable EV dealership and/or salespeople
2) And get a firm understanding on the commitment level of the legacy automaker selling EVs in 2021.
Plugged IN believes VW, Volvo, Audi is strongly behind their EV brands, with Ford and GM showing positive signs. However, this experience varies with each dealership. Due diligence needed…and it shouldn’t be this hard!
EV Evangelists Needed!
Even though it’s not April and Earth Day is in the rear view mirror, please become an EV evangelist. This article, from Bloomberg, “Tracking Carbon Emissions Becomes Harder When Big Oil is Gone,” shows how methane emissions, which are 25x worse in trapping heat in the ozone than C02, are extremely hard to measure by the EPA, and smaller oil and gas companies aren’t keen on accurately measuring methane, see below:
Navigating EVs
Legacy automaker, Hyundai Motor Group, announces big plans to manufacture EVs in the U.S. Last week, Plugged In showcased its bespoke EV design from the Ioniq 5. See image below:
What is already clear is that the EV models will be manufactured at the Hyundai plant in Montgomery, Alabama. However, the company has not yet officially revealed which models will be produced there.
Autoblog clearly speculates on the production of E-GMP models. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 have already been presented here.
The Ioniq 5 is a cross-over utility vehicle meets hatchback like the ID.4. (Source: The Late Break Show) And, for our European friends, Dantaxi unveiled a new electric taxi ride service in Copenhagen. I used to work for a company in the U.S. that was owned by E.On and they are moving fast in e-Mobility space.
Danish taxi service Dantaxi and energy supplier E.On opened a large charging hub in Copenhagen called Danhub. The site is supposed to supply up to 400 electric cabs a day and is considered crucial in converting the capital’s taxi fleet to electric by 2025.
So far, Dantaxi and E.On confirmed five ultra-fast chargers, which the partners reckon can charge up to ten taxis at a time. “Ultra-fast chargers can charge up to 300 kW, and this means that all-electric cars would be able to charge at the maximum power that the car’s battery is made for,” says Pär Möller, head of eMobility Nordic at E.On.
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