I sold EVs for more than a decade. I'm frustrated dealers still don't have the right approach

Nigel Zeid is an independent EV educator.
Nigel Zeid

Nigel Zeid is a former Nissan EV specialist who now educates dealers about electric car sales.
Dealerships often don’t have the answers customers need about owning electric, Zeid said.
Here’s what Zeid said you should expect when you shop for an EV, as told to reporter Alexa St. John.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Nigel Zeid, a 65-year-old former Nissan EV specialist and now an independent EV educator based in Boulder, Colorado. He spent more than a decade at a Nissan dealership selling EVs. He also spent a brief stint as a Tesla sales consultant.

Now, Zeid travels and speaks to dealerships, salespeople, and others about the nuances of selling EVs. (There’s a need for more and more EV sales education as automakers invest billions to electrify.) Zeid regularly speaks at major conferences, expos, and auto shows. He says car salespeople are not prepared to sell electric vehicles, and that serves as a point of frustration and barrier to adoption for car shoppers. 

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Why I’m so frustrated with automakers and dealers

We are at least 12 years into EVs. And for 12 years, I’ve been nagging people to do more outreach and education.

Automakers might do an advertisement where they show the car and that it’s the thing of the future, but they don’t say a word about the car. These are teachable moments, but the automakers are so out of touch with what’s going on and what people are actually saying.

The whole industry, the dealerships, the automakers, the salespeople — their job has been done by volunteers for at least the last decade with people like me coming with our own cars to talk to the public. 

The 800-pound gorilla in the room

We have the cars. We have the charging. We have the batteries. We have the funding. We have the Inflation Reduction Act. But what about the people who are going to be educating an entire society?

I find that disconnect is the same disconnect that’s been going on for years and years, and it doesn’t seem to have changed.

There’s so much to be done. It’s a bit like standing inside a shaken snow globe.

Zeid shows that EV drivers can juice up while grabbing a bite to eat at a rest stop on a longer drive.
Nigel Zeid

EVs are a no-brainer for many — but we are still hearing the same questions

People want to know: What about the battery and where it comes from, and what about catching fire? And what about recycling?

They say, ‘We’re going to Costco, we are going to the dentist, and we might do a lot of trips in a day.’ But no one’s really doing much more than 50 miles, even 100 miles a day. If you have a car with a 250-mile range, you can go electric.

Zeid spends his time speaking with industry stakeholders at major events and talking to dealership salespeople about EVs.
Nigel Zeid

I still hear nightmare stories about salespeople

When someone goes into a dealership, they need to be greeted by someone who is just asking questions, not trying to sell immediately. We’ve got to slow that sale thing down. Because if we don’t educate people properly about the car, we don’t have a sale at all.

Maybe not at the dealerships in the middle of nowhere right now, but at a dealership in California or Colorado or Texas or major cities, the salespeople need to understand that they are at the core of this. Where do people get their information from if you can’t walk into a dealership and be told the basics of the car?

People need to come in and they need to see someone that’s truly confident and understands the nuances of EVs. I say “you need to give your staff a car for the weekend, one at a time or two at a time, and let them have it for a whole weekend and learn what it feels like, not do a test online.” Because they have a certificate that says “I’ve passed without actually driving the car and plugging it in somewhere.”

I recognize that not everyone’s going to need this right now, but dealers happen to be born at this time, and own a dealership at this time in our society when we are transitioning from one type of fuel source to another. Whether they like it or not, we’re here.

Dealership red flags, including a lack of enthusiasm

If someone walks in and the salesperson goes, “I don’t know much about it, but let me pass you on to this guy.” Why is your whole staff not knowing this? Why is there one expert?

If a customer comes into a dealership and has just been to another dealership where they’ve either had an appalling experience or a truly fantastic experience, the salesperson is competing with this other dealership and perhaps another manufacturer. There are so many people that walk in and they’re just devastated by the lack of enthusiasm, knowledge, and excitement.

Zeid said prospective EV buyers should look out for certain red flags from dealerships.
Nigel Zeid

A dealer should be able to address questions — otherwise, take your business elsewhere

Is there a car there? Where are their EVs parked? Are they charged when you get in there? Is the salesperson asking the right questions?

What do they know about EVs? Can they answer: Can I plug in at home or work? Can you educate me about how much it’ll cost in electricity? What’s the size of the battery? How much is the battery? What will battery replacement look like and cost?

If you go into an uneducated dealership, know there’s more than one dealership to go to.

Here are some of the things car shoppers should know about EVs

The battery doesn’t just get dumped in the trash after 10 years. It’s used in second-life energy storage and later, gets sent to places like Redwood Materials where it is recycled.

People always say, “I’m going to wait for the technology to change a bit.” We’ve got batteries of 300 miles of range and yes, it’s going to get better, but how long do you wait before you get something? It’s the same as with car motors. Yes, we’ll get better types of motors, but there’s nothing wrong with the ones we have now.

People talk about Chevrolet and their fires. There weren’t even two dozen fires and they replaced over 200,000 batteries. There are thousands of gasoline car fires every year that no one talks about.