Small electric car companies plan to ditch often-lousy car salesmen in favor of specialists at big box stores

Consumers routinely rank their interactions with car dealerships as one of the least rewarding parts of the new car buying experience. In particular, dealing with an untrained and often-lousy car salesman makes the entire experience less than pleasing. Of course, there are a few ways to deal with this situation, but none of the options guarantee a rewarding experience. Here's what car buyers can do: they can hunt down the best dealers in town, they can choose a car salesman with experience and knowledge, or buyers can just forego the entire dealership experience and head off to big box stores to purchase an electric vehicle (EV) instead.

If the idea of buying an EV from a retailer like Best Buy sounds intriguing, then you'll be glad to know that many battery-powered vehicles from small start-ups will likely be sold this way. Best Buy currently uses the Mitsubishi i-MiEV for its Geek squad and also sells the Brammo Enertia motorcycle, but the company is in talks with several other EV makers as it tries to ink more deals for retail EV sales. Additionally, the Costco Auto Program may add EVs to its lineup of models sold and Think has already partnered with Migros, a Swiss retailer known mainly as a supermarket chain, for sales of its City EV. Best Buy senior director of environmental affairs, Leo Raudys, said:

We are very serious about the business. Electric cars are basically computers on wheels. We expect to play a big part in it.

Raudys' thoughts are shared by many other retailers who are looking to get into EV sales as a way to bolster their bottom line while also offering small start-ups the opportunity to sell vehicles without establishing a dealership network. It's looks like a winning combo to us, but traditional car dealerships surely aren't pleased with this new method of selling vehicles. To that we say, "oh, well."

[Source: PluginCars]