Earlier this year, the Trump administration eliminated federal electric vehicle tax credits and blocked California's plan to phase out gas-powered vehicle sales.
Since then, several automakers have scaled back their EV investments. And analysts are projecting an industry-wide slowdown with sharply lower EV sales over the next decade.
But Mike Murphy thinks the EV sales problem started long before Trump, and fixing it requires dealers to completely change their approach.
For context: Murphy is a Republican political strategist who worked campaigns for Mitt Romney, John McCain, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He's also a self-described "wrench head from Detroit" with a lifetime fuel economy average of four miles per gallon.
But he fell in love with EV powertrains, bought a BMW iX, and started studying why Republican consumers hate electric vehicles.
"These machines have become politicized, which is insane," Murphy told Daily Dealer Live hosts Sam D'Arc and Uli de' Martino. "You don't pick your toaster or your dishwasher based on some political opinion."
Murphy blames the "polar bear."
Remember the Nissan Leaf launch ad where a polar bear swam to America to hug the buyer?
"From day one, they made [EVs] dogma vehicles, you know, virtue projectors," Murphy said. "That’s not how you sell cars."
But since 40% of car commerce comes from "right-of-center" (or more conservative) buyers, Murphy argues the industry can't succeed in EVs without breaking through that political wall.
So he founded EVs for All America.
His advice to dealers: Stop selling green and start selling attributes.
"When you sell the attributes, a lot less maintenance, no gas—the average family spends $2,000 a year on gas. And [EVs are] fun to drive," Murphy said. "If you give one to a customer for a weekend and they don't have to tow anything, you got a good shot at a sale."
The key is, customers need to experience home charging, understand the routine, and get past range anxiety over an extended period of time, like a weekend. A 20-minute test drive, however, often doesn't cut it.
Murphy also recommended that dealers make their sales consultants drive EVs as their personal vehicles for a few months.
"All the most successful EV stores in America have one thing in common at the retail level. They make the sales consultants drive EVs as their personal vehicles for a few months," Murphy said. "It's sink or swim. It's like what the State Department does. You want to learn Turkish? We're going to send you to Turkey and put you in immersion for six months."
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His point: Salespeople who live with EVs can answer real questions about charging, winter performance, and daily use. The ones who don't often sound like they're just reading from a brochure.
Essentially, Murphy sees two ways for dealers to win with EVs:
Become the EV specialist in the market with heavy digital marketing.
Get good at closing the 35% of buyers who are curious but unsure.
Between the lines: Murphy's motivation isn't environmental, it's competitive.
China made 30 million vehicles last year while the U.S. made 10 million.
And by 2035, China is projected to control 47% of the world's value-added manufacturing while the U.S. will likely drop to the teens, according to Murphy.
"The Chinese strategy is political," Murphy said. "Let's flood the market with cars and let's de-industrialize our geopolitical opponents."
And if U.S. OEMs can't compete globally in EVs, their per‑unit EV costs stay higher, making it harder to price competitively even at home against imports or transplants building in North America.
Looking ahead: Murphy is pushing for state-level EV subsidies—a $3,500 consumer conquest credit (only when switching from gas) plus a $2,000 dealer spiff.
California could fund it for about $600 million annually. And Washington, Hawaii, Massachusetts, and Colorado have strong enough EV markets to follow suit, he explained.
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