Before the EV price war started, having electric vehicles on the lot was new and exciting. Now, a few years in, dealerships and dealership groups need to formalize their strategies and new partners for a world where EVs increasingly gain market share. Below are six concrete ideas for dealerships and dealer groups to get ahead in EV adoption and boost their sales. Lectrium can directly help dealerships with all of these.

#1 Select Your EV Partners

Every dealership and dealer group has partners and vendors for various needs and services, including a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, Dealership Management System (DMS), website provider, advertising agency, etc. More recently, we have started seeing dealerships seek out their “go-to” EV partners to address any challenges they might be facing and smoothly transition to electric vehicles.

Lectrium is among these “go-to” EV partners for dealers. We have been working with dealerships on their EV strategies over the last two years, and have emerged as a leading EV software partner for franchise and independent dealerships. We elevate dealership digital marketing by showing accurate electric vehicle data on their Vehicle Detail Pages (VDPs) and websites, empowering customers to adopt electric vehicles and enabling sales staff to answer EV questions with confidence. If you’re interested in partnering with Lectrium, we’d love to hear from you!

Lectrium has exhibited at Digital Dealer and had a booth at NADA in 2024. We will also be attending NADA in 2025 in New Orleans with our own booth as well.

Lectrium is working with over 200 dealerships as of Spring 2024.

#2 Show Lower Total Cost of Ownership

One of the most beautiful aspects of EVs are the financial benefits currently available to consumers. From the federal Clean Vehicle Tax credit, which is applied at the point of sale at dealerships, to state incentives and utility incentives, a lot of information is out there which impacts how much a consumer pays and can save. Additionally, owning an EV means a different way of looking at your fuel costs, especially when comparing home charging to gas station refueling.

On average, across the United States a consumer often can save over $7,700 on an EV when looking at these potential savings. However, most dealers do not yet make this information available to shoppers!

A new generation of information means new tools, and Lectrium is proud to have built the EV Savings Badge and EV Sales Buddy so that consumers can view their EV savings directly on dealership websites in a clear and useful way when deciding on their next vehicle.

And it’s not only EV shoppers that benefit from these tools. Sales managers are oftentimes the biggest “power users” of the EV Savings tool at the dealership!

#3 Separate Marketing Budget between EV and ICE

“You can’t improve what you don’t track” and frankly, many dealerships are unable to improve EV performance because they are not diving into the details.

If 20% of your inventory is electric, common sense would state that at least 20% of your marketing budget should be geared towards electric vehicle education. Lectrium frequently speaks with dealerships that spend $75,000+ per month in advertising across all cars, but do not track budget differences between ICE vs Electric.

By breaking out dollars spent on EV marketing, dealerships can track and understand whether their existing strategies are working, or if newly refreshed processes are required.

#4 Create your EV Hub and EV Charging Hub

Education is paramount for getting consumers into electric vehicles. For many American families, having their second car be electric could already improve vehicle ownership experience and provide them significant savings each month compared to ICE. However, most people do not yet understand the benefits an electric car can provide.

With tens of thousands of monthly website visitors, it is a dealerships’ responsibility to host EV related content on their website, ideally with a centralized place that discusses charging, affordability, and showcases available electric inventory.

Many great dealership groups are already breaking out a new section on their site (New, Used, Electric) and hosting EV content.

If you are considering an EV page on your site, Lectrium would recommend including:

• Links to federal and state tax incentives
• Explanation of fuel savings and calculators for shoppers to customize their savings
• Information and visuals on Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 charging
• Public charger maps in your area

#5 Enable Sales Staff with Tools Like the EV Sales Buddy

With new technology also come new questions. Many dealership sales people are overwhelmed with a wide range of new questions pertaining to electric vehicles from tax credits, to charging, to batteries. Dealerships should have a central knowledge base which is easily accessible for staff and helps guide their conversations with EV shoppers.

Would you rather have your sales people answering complex and nuanced questions in 15 minutes or 15 seconds?

This is why we created the Lectrium EV Sales Buddy. With this tool, dealership sales staff can reference and look up electric and plug-in hybrid inventory stock to view relevant EV information and unique specs for each vehicle. Book a demo with Lectrium to visualize and access this tool for your staff.

#6 Finish the EV Sale with Charging Resources and Processes

Now that your dealership is prepared to sell EVs, ensuring consumers have a positive ownership experience completes the sale. With 85% of charging taking place at home, according to J.D. Power, equipping new EV owners with a Level 2 EV charger and resources for the installation is the best way to enable a new consumer to successfully own and enjoy the benefits of their electric vehicle.

While referring customers to a friendly, local electrician is a simple way of helping out, there are better customer service experiences that dealerships can provide. Our recommendation would be to forge partnerships with technology providers who ensure all your customers have positive and successful Level 2 charger installation experiences at home.

Ready to convert more EV shoppers into EV buyers?

Chat with Lectrium’s EV experts and begin improving your dealership group’s EV content, processes and tools. Let’s chat.