Most car dealerships aren’t exactly known for their pro-EV positions, or even, for that matter, a willingness to promote EVs at all. As a result, EV sales usually only comprise a minor portion of any dealership’s total sales.
But that generalization apparently doesn’t hold true everywhere — as evidenced by the Bourgeois Chevrolet of Rawdon, Quebec. This car dealership has, amazingly, sold enough Chevrolet Volts for the model to actually make up roughly ⅓ of the dealership’s total vehicles sales.
Owing to this impressive fact, the dealership was actually recently honored at Canada’s first annual Electric Vehicle Dealership Awards — which was jointly presided over by the advocacy group Plug’n Drive and the Canadian Electricity Association.
The dealership’s ability to sell so many of the Volts seems to come down to proper training of the whole staff, and to a focus on the models.
Green Car Reports provides more:
Last year, having invested the time to train its entire staff to sell the Volt, the dealership saw the plug-in grow to represent fully 14% of its sales. The range-extended electric Volt and the battery-electric Chevy Spark EV are the only cars shown on the main page of the dealer’s website, in fact.
And its salespeople reached that number despite co-owner Samuel Jeanson’s continuing struggle to secure inventory — along with his off-the-cuff estimate that it took salespeople about five times longer to sell a Volt than a regular vehicle.
Unable to secure enough new Volts from GM, this year Bourgeois Chevrolet began importing used ones from the United States. Enough, in fact, to keep about 50 Volts of various colors and configurations on the lot at any given time — which is how the Chevy Volt has come to represent a full 35% of the dealership’s year-to-date sales.
So, as stated above, some of sales were of used vehicles — which, of course, sell for notably less than new ones. Still impressive, though. And since there’s no way around it — for the time being — owing to limited stocks of new units, that’s the way that’ll have to be for now.
The judges of the recent award ceremony commented at the time that Bourgeois Chevrolet “believes electric vehicles are not only a product but a lifestyle to be shared with people in the community.” They added: “The number of electric vehicles sold annually, in addition to the training sessions completed by technicians and representatives, enable the family-owned company to stand out from its competitors.” Indeed.
Something final to note — the dealership also actually lends out EVs for extended test drives of up to a few days, thereby giving those unfamiliar with EVs the chance to become acquainted, and more comfortable. Certainly seems to be a good strategy.
For more information on the highly acclaimed Chevy Volt, I recommend these three pieces:
Chevy Volt Owner Review After 1 Year
Chevy Volt vs Toyota Prius (VIDEO)
True Cost Of Owning A Chevy Volt Might Surprise You
Image Credit: Chevrolet
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