GM offers $500,000 to Cadillac dealers who want to opt out of the EV revolution

Automakers worldwide have pointed their businesses in one direction long-term: The future is electric. But what if you don't want to live in that future? Well, if you're a Cadillac dealer, you have an option: Take the money and run.

According to Automotive News, GM is offering $300,000-$500,000 to any Cadillac dealer who is not down with GM's ambitious plans to make Cadillac an all-electric brand. CEO Mary Barra last week outlined to investors GM's plan to accelerate the transition to EVs, increasing spending on electric and self-driving cars by 35 percent to $27 billion in the next couple of years. The Cadillac Lyriq EV's launch has been accelerated to 2022, and by 2030, Cadillac could be out of the internal-combustion engine business altogether as GM's electric standard-bearer.

That might not appeal to a dealer who doubts the business case, or who doesn't want to gear up with the infrastructure to charge or service electric cars. Meanwhile, GM has been trying to thin its pool of Cadillac dealers for years, having last tried to muster out hundreds of its lower-volume dealers in 2016 with a much smaller lure of $100,000-$180,000, but it got few bites. This time, the buyout's being offered to all 880 Cadillac dealers and might prove to be a win-win.

"We wanted to move fast and make sure dealers are ready for the acceleration," Mahmoud Samara, vice president of Cadillac North America, told Automotive News. "This is purely an option for those dealers who feel the EV journey is not suitable for them."

And just like when you sit down at the dealership to buy a car, it sounds like there's room to dicker in GM's offer, so some dealers might walk away with more than the half-million.

Dealer reaction sounds varied, in some cases positive but in others distinctly not. Their deadline to decide is Nov. 30. For more on the offer and the dealers' take on it, read the full account in Automotive News.

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