The U.S. Lexus boss said he thinks the brand “is well positioned to take advantage of the market, even though today [EVs are] 15 percent of the of the total luxury industry. But that’s 15 compared to 2.5 or 3 percent of the total industry, so we know that luxury car buyers are going to at least initially be the majority of purchasers of these electric vehicles.”
Gilleland said Lexus is working with an outside contractor to visit the brand’s 243 U.S. dealerships to determine what each will need in their individual markets to be able to sell EVs successfully.
“We’re looking at registrations, sales volumes, what we predict might happen, and say, ‘These are the number of chargers you’re going to need. This is the infrastructure,’ ” Gilleland said. “We have the world’s best dealer body — I believe that in my heart of hearts — and I think we need to figure out how to leverage it. We do have some ideas.”
John Iacono, co-president of BRAM Auto Group in New York and chairman of the Lexus National Dealer Advisory Council, said he and other members were enthusiastic and excited to see the EVs that will eventually come to their dealerships and the plans the brand has for its retailers.
“Everyone’s saying they’re ready to go,” Iacono said after dealer council meetings this week. He said that using dealers’ courtesy vehicle fleets for EV customers is “the piece that probably excites me more than anything else.”
“The one thing that we have over the dominant player in the EV space is a dealer body that can really take care of its customers,” he said, referring to Tesla. “If you look at the reaction of the owners of those vehicles — not the buyers who are all excited about their new purchase, but the owners who have had them for a while — you see people whose interactions with that company are not so great. Now we have an opportunity, as a dealer body that knows how to take care of people, to go in and provide the level of service that we know how to provide, that we provide to our customers every day.”
Iacono said that in the future, consumers buying their first EV could be able to work through their Lexus dealership to set up a home charging system as part of the brand’s concierge-level of customer service. “We know how to do it. The finances are going to pencil,” he said.
