Model e Program is Discontinued by Ford

By Jeremiah M. Hawkes

After numerous legal challenges, dealer pushback, and disappointing sales Ford announced it was dropping its highly questionable Model e program, which imposed onerous requirements on dealers for chargers, training, demonstration vehicles and loaners. The program also required dealers to use Ford’s E-Commerce site to complete sales, which allowed Ford to directly provide financing and gather customer data; and the Guest XP program, which allowed Ford to track service appointments and prevented dealers from working with vendors they chose. The program started in January of 2024 and dealers were required to enroll to be eligible to sell EV vehicles. 

When the program was announced, a number of dealer associations tried to work with Ford pointing out that the program violated most state laws and that requirements such as having public facing chargers were completely unnecessary. Ford proceeded with the program anyhow and about 1,900 of Ford’s roughly 2,900 dealers signed up for the program. By the end of the program enrollment had declined to approximately 1,500 dealers.  

After protests by associations and dealers failed to change Ford’s stance, a number of legal actions were filed, including by Bass, Sox, Mercer clients in New York, North Carolina and Florida. There were also challenges filed in Illinois, Arkansas, Louisiana, Ohio and South Dakota. In Illinois the program was found to violate state law and in New York a stay was entered against the program because it was found to be a substantial modification of the dealer agreement even though Ford claimed it was a voluntary program. 

With the declining enrollment, poor EV sales, and legal setbacks, Ford has announced it is terminating the program. However, Ford has not announced any definite plans to compensate dealers for the investment they made installing unnecessary chargers or training. Nor has Ford terminated the E-commerce platform, which arguably violates many states direct sales laws and allows Ford to push an agency model on dealers, where Ford brokers the sale and the dealer is just a pick-up point for the vehicle.

If dealers have questions about uncompensated costs from the program or whether Ford may be engaged in other unlawful acts, they should call a BSM attorney for more information.