Cadillac dealers have to cough up $200,000 investment to sell EVs

Operating a dealership isn’t as simple as shoveling out cars from some retail space. Automakers have standards, and often, they have a lot of them. Kick it up a notch and move into selling luxury vehicles and parent automakers want to ensure customers are walking into a fine establishment. For Cadillac dealers, they’re going to need to open up their business accounts in a big way if they want to sell the brand’s future electric cars.

Rory Harvey, Cadillac’s vice president of sales, service and marketing, told Automotive News Wednesday that the company will require dealers to make a $200,000 investment into their facilities if they want to sell electric cars wearing the iconic crest. While that sounds like a lofty sum of money, Cadillac worked closely with its dealer council to draw up the requirements. All dealers must follow franchise agreement regulations to a T, and the current agreement expires this November.

Should a dealer not want to make the investment, it will have to part ways with General Motors’ luxury division. Harvey told the website its council communicated there “may be a few dealers” that don’t “share the Cadillac vision,” but by and large, he expects smooth sailing.

Cadillac did not immediately return Roadshow’s request for comment on the investment requirements.

What does the $200,000 buy dealers? The big-ticket items are charging stations. It’s hard to sell an EV if you don’t have a place to charge them, after all. Harvey also told the website the cost could increase with time as Cadillac rolls out more EVs. GM already tasked the division with leading the automaker’s all-electric future, so definitely expect a lot of electric cars from Cadillac this decade.

We’ll first be treated to the Lyriq SUV, which Cadillac showed last month in prototype form. It won’t actually launch until two years from now, however. We also know the brand has a hand-built electric flagship sedan in the pipeline, called the Celestiq. All of GM’s future EVs will ride on a platform known as BEV3 and support the company’s new Ultium battery technology. Just this week, GM also announced “Ultium Drive” as its blueprint for a family of electric powertrains to propel its future zero-emission cars.