DETROIT — Stellantis is working to ease dealerships into its ambitious electric vehicle rollout, but it has no plans to specify the dollar amounts they’ll need to invest as General Motors and Ford Motor Co. have done.
The automaker has partnered with Future Energy, a company that advises dealerships on how to set up charging infrastructure and can train employees on operational changes related to EVs and sales strategies.
“Nearly 70 percent of dealers are in various phases of assessing their individual readiness” with Future Energy, Stellantis said Tuesday. The two companies began working together late last year.
The evaluations are occurring ahead of Stellantis’ planned launch of more than 25 EVs in the U.S. by 2030, starting in 2024 with models including the Ram 1500 EV pickup and Jeep Recon, a Wrangler-inspired off-road SUV.
Stellantis is aiming for dealers to have their charging infrastructure installed by the first quarter of 2024, said Phil Langley, the automaker’s head of network development for North America.
It isn’t mandatory that stores work with Future Energy, but they will need to have the necessary infrastructure in place to sell EVs. Langley said the automaker wants all dealers to sell EVs. Stellantis has not said whether it would offer buyouts to those who don’t want to make the investment, as GM has done with Buick and Cadillac.
Future Energy will identify energy requirements, electrical infrastructure changes and needed utility service upgrades at dealerships. Stellantis said Future Energy will “locate ideal installation areas for EV charging stations inside and outside of dealerships to address business flow challenges” and help dealerships find financial incentive programs to assist with EV investments.
Langley said the evaluations take around 30 days to complete. Stellantis, Langley said, wants its dealers to have Level 3 fast charging capabilities to support its EV lineup.
“We want our dealers to use Future Energy because they understand what our requirements are,” Langley told Automotive News. “In the end, we’re looking for a dealer to have the charging capabilities they need to service and sell our EV products. They could do that independently, but we wanted to make sure that the dealers had that one-stop shopping, if you will, that had some expertise behind it, rather than just going out [and] individually purchasing a charger and then figuring out where to install it and how to install it.”
The dollar amounts Stellantis dealers will need to spend to sell EVs will vary by store. Some of Stellantis’ chief competitors have been telling their dealers they’ll need to make six- or seven-figure investments. Ford is requiring dealers to spend as much as $1.2 million and adhere to a new set of standards in exchange for the ability to sell unlimited EVs after next year, prompting some dealers and state associations to push back.
Future Energy offers various services to dealers, including “guidance through the financial assistance application process to obtain project funding support to offset EV integration costs,” Stellantis said. Future Energy also can coordinate all construction, logistics, networking and commissioning to install and activate EV charging stations at stores. The company can provide “technology solutions and infrastructure to measure and manage the energy use across their entire business, in real-time, including monitoring and automation to make better decisions and reduce energy costs.”
Stellantis has more than 2,600 North American dealerships. Langley said the automaker has been working to keep dealers in the loop on its plans as it works through this EV transition.
“Our national dealer council, we work really closely with them, and we created a transformation subcommittee that deals with nothing but electrification,” Langley said. “We bring them individually into Detroit. We’ve had a couple of meetings with them in person or online, and it’s going really well. We think that keeping them informed on what our plans are is the best way to accomplish this. We’ve had their support and look to continue that.”