Dealerships ‘should appoint specialist EV champions’ to maximise growing demand

Dealerships are being advised to create EV champions in their dealerships to take advantage of the growing demand for electric vehicles.

According to Gain Solutions, who have been at the forefront in the development of electric vehicles, dealerships need to invest in specialist EV training for their sales and technical teams.

While it will be difficult to bring the whole team up to speed, appointing a trained EV champion with expert knowledge of electric vehicles would be a good stop gap. There will also be a need to have better trained EV technicians to handle repair and maintenance issues.

Currently one in three UK dealerships don’t have a single EV trained technician in their workshops. Although the majority of dealers do now recognise the need to increase the number of EV trained technicians in their dealerships and many want to train their existing staff.

Gain Solutions has come to realise that most customers going into a dealership will have done huge amounts of research into electric vehicles beforehand so will know exactly what they want and why. Gain is rolling out a specialist EV training programme to dealerships to ensure that when a customer enters the sales room they have a clear, structured plan with all the necessary knowledge to secure that EV sale.

Marcus Blakemore, managing director at Gain Solutions said: “With the demand for electric vehicles increasing, it is crucial that dealers are trained, educated and geared up for the switch in vehicle sales that lies ahead. Just as important, is to ensure that customers do not know more than the dealership staff.

“Initially, one EV champion in a dealership is likely to be much more effective and successful in the selling of EV’s than an entire sales team who just know the basics. It will buy time to methodically train the rest of the team.”

Electric vehicles may still be considered as a niche product, but with governments wanting to end the production of diesel and petrol vehicles and manufacturers launching new EVs, the next stage of selling vehicles will be upon us very soon and the whole industry needs to be geared up for this.

Blakemore added: “We have built up extensive experience of handling electric vehicles, so can give expert guidance and training to dealers to ensure they can cope when the influx of interest in electric vehicles arrives. Dealers must make sure they are aware and ready for the significant changes that will come with selling EV’s instead of combustion engine cars.”

“We want to ensure dealerships are as prepared and knowledgeable as possible for the time when more and more people come to them to buy an electric vehicle.”