Featured 2020 RAV4 PHV

Seen as a niche, it will fail.

Here, the Mitsubishi dealer has embraced them, seeing it as an opportunity to become well established as the go-to dealer for them.

 

The Prius, years ago, was also a niche market. Then it grew. A lot. What if dealers in California in the early 2000's thought Prii were never going to sell? Some actually refused to stock them.

Luckily, some dealers thought bigger. One year later they couldn't get enough Prii. PHEV's are the same next big thing. Dealers really have to evolve their thinking.

 

Is the dealer barred from making the charger "pay to play"? At least for over brands to use the charger. The they can expand into the charger business.

 

Are you talking prime or rav4 phev (speculated model that I think is likely)? This is part of the problem of the dealership model in the internet age. One of the reasons for gm's bankrupcy was trying to keep all those dealers happy, instead of the car buyers.

I have a friend who asked if she should take her car (a cr-v) to the dealer, while we were having drinks friday. Everyone told her independent mechanic. Why would the dealer not try to rip her off? Some don't but many do. If people want plug-ins, and the sucess of the prime and tesla show they do, pretending that they don't may just mean those dealers may be endangered.

Can toyota afford to keep telling people they need fuel cells and not support for plug-ins? I don't think so. Those dealers that at least get trained and give people a choice will do better than those that go try to sell you a non-hybrid camry when you go in for a prime.

 

The problem with this forum is you can't immediately see what message a posting is responding to. No indentations to show you a clue. I was speaking of a Mitsubishi dealer's incentive to invest in chargers to become a dealer for an EV or plug-in. Our small town Nissan dealer has one charger. GM Bolt/volt dealer may have one. See almost none of those cars on the road.

 

That seems a disincentive, almost like they want it to fail.

 

Sorry about that then. Since the thread was about toyota plug-ins I missed that. Yeah. Mitsubishi dealers in north america have a tough job, not least of which is mitsubishi was very slow on bringing the outlander phev here. The leaf does poorly here because of its trouble with heat. There are a lot of ford, gm, and tesla plug-ins though, and the city and state help with businesses putting in chargers.

 

"and the city and state help with businesses putting in chargers." I should correct myself. A charge-point was put into a downtown parking lot in May of last year so that makes 3. But only one plug.