Mercedes dealers must educate customers on EVs, board leader says

With Tesla Inc. now the top-selling luxury brand in the U.S., Mercedes-Benz and its dealers must better educate customers on the benefits of electric vehicles as it plans to cut into Tesla's lead and go all-EV by 2030, according to the brand's dealer board chairman.

Joseph Agresta Jr., who took over as head of the dealer board Jan. 1, said he blames a lack of customer education for slow EV adoption rates in certain parts of the country.

"There's more we all need to do, dealers and manufacturer together," said Agresta, president of Benzel-Busch Motor Car Corp., which has three franchised dealerships in New York and New Jersey. "There's still concerns about range anxiety and charging and if the new technology will be the same level of quality. It's an obligation both dealers and manufacturers will have to overcome those concerns."

Agresta said Mercedes has already offered dealers an immersion program on its EQ line of EVs to assist customers, as well as technician and sales training, and requires dealers to feature certain marketing displays for EVs.

Still, he believes dealers could better communicate EV capabilities and dispel myths to help on-the-fence shoppers make a decision.

"I think we'll need to do some things on marketing and communicating more directly to EV buyers," he said.

Agresta said the EV pivot has Mercedes dealers broadening their view of potential rivals and learning from their successes.

"Even if they're not necessarily luxury competitors, if a customer is buying an EV from another brand, I view that as competition," he said. "We're definitely changing our mindset around some of the upstarts, looking at Tesla and Rivian and how we may be able to adapt our businesses to compete more directly with them. I do think there's things we can learn and adapt within our framework."

Agresta said Mercedes dealers have seen big demand for its newest products such as the EQB crossover, as well as EQS and EQE sedans.

"We have all these electrics coming to market to start our transition," he said. "It's been exciting to see that."