Automotive News Canada - May 2022 - 14

14
* MAY 2022
For EVs, retail thinks outside the box
Instead of traditional
dealership footprints,
startups look to
shopping malls
and even shipping
containers to get in
front of customers
By DAVID KENNEDY
T ORONTO BUREAU CHIEF
POLESTAR IS OPERATING OUT
of a shipping container in
Montreal, Imperium Motor of
Canada is considering pop-up locations
in high-traffic areas to supplement
other locales, and a trio of
EV makers - Tesla, Lucid Motors
and VinFast - will soon be set
up in Toronto's upscale Yorkdale
Shopping Centre.
Electric-vehicle startups are
putting traditional showrooms on
notice.
The new approaches, ranging
from a wholesale abandonment of
the franchised-dealership model
to a less radical
rethinking of
footprints and
locations, signal
a new era
for automotive
retail.
Bissonnette:
Polestar
showrooms
offer " a
sales-free
environment. "
FILE PHOTO
" It's a salesfree
environment, "
Hugues
Bissonnette,
head of Polestar
Canada, said of
the company's
showrooms.
" We don't have
pushy salespeople
trying to get
the product out. Really, people go
online, they order, and it's much
more of a pull system. "
Polestar currently has " spaces "
open in Montreal, Toronto and
Vancouver to sell the Polestar 2,
which starts at about $50,000, and
the Polestar 1, which stickers for
close to $200,000.
The goal is to create minimalistic,
distraction-free environments,
Bissonnette said. And with
Polestar employing a digital-first
retail model, sales take a back
seat, he said.
Tesla opened its first Canadian
showroom a decade ago at
Yorkdale Shopping Centre in
Toronto. Lucid opened there in
March, and another EV startup,
VinFast, is set to follow this
year. SUPPLIED PHOTO
The spaces are relatively small,
with room for one or two cars,
though an upcoming Montreal
site can accommodate up to five
vehicles. Dealers hold no inventory,
and though service can be carried
out at the facilities, it is not
the priority. Polestar is using a
its first Canadian showroom at
Yorkdale Shopping Centre, two
other EV startups are taking
up residence in the mall. Lucid
opened its second Canadian
storefront there in March, and
Vietnam-based VinFast is scheduled
to follow this summer. All
three brands are also shunning
the traditional franchised-dealer
model in favour of direct sales.
SELL WHERE PEOPLE SHOP
Foot traffic at the Toronto mall,
totaling about 18 million people
each year, is one of the big
draws for the automakers, said
Will Correia, director of Yorkdale
Shopping Centre.
Polestar operates " spaces " in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal,
the latter of which is inside a shipping container.
SUPPLIED PHOTO
pick-up/drop-off model for much
of the service it is carrying out,
Bissonnette said.
" We want to get
away from that
appointment model.
We want to give the
flexibility to our customers.
We understand
their time is preSOME
WILL USE DEALERSHIPS
Despite the avant-garde
approach to the spaces themselves,
Polestar, owned by China-based
Geely, has stuck to the conventional
dealership model. Cars are sold
online, but all transactions take
place through franchised dealerships.
Imperium,
likewise, is not trying
to reinvent vehicle sales and
is taking the dealer route. The
REIMAGINING RETAIL
cious, and we want to give it back
to them. "
SPOTLIGHT
approach gives the company the
type of partners who know their
local markets and already have
the proper retailing
talent, said Christian
Dubois, president
of the company's
Canadian operations.
Imperium has
announced franchise
agreements with three Quebec
dealers and plans to add four more
in Canada during 2022. The brand
looks to have locations in Toronto
and Vancouver open as early as
this summer, and it's looking to
both coasts - Victoria and Halifax
- Dubois said.
Santander Consumer welcomes
Liliane Dubois to our team.
In the role of Director Strategic Development -
focused on OEM development and engagement
Liliane brings more than 30 years of experience
in the Automotive sector with an in-depth
expertise in financial services, indirect lending,
commercial lending, marketing, sales, pricing
and risk management, software and digital
solutions and market data insight.
She is a proven and respected leader with well
established relationships among Canadian
Automotive OEMs, lenders and dealers.
She is a strategic thinker and is very much
result oriented with strong business acumen
and a proven track record of customer and
employee satisfaction.
Prior to joining Santander Consumer, Liliane
held several positions within the Financial
Services area and most recently was the General
Manager of DealerTrack Canada a division of Cox
Automotive Canada Inc.
Santander Consumer is part of Banco Santander,
one of the largest banks in the world by market
capitalization with globally 197,000 employees,
153 million customer and 2.2 CDN Trillion
(€1.60) in assets. We are here to help our
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Here to help you Thrive.
Yet being a new brand has
allowed the company to fine-tune
its franchise approach, Dubois
said. Imperium has made provisions
for independent service centres
in areas of the country not
close to dealerships, and it has
reserved the right to open company-owned
stores outside the range
of existing dealerships.
Malls and other high-traffic
locations could suit the company's
needs, Dubois said.
" I could see the merit of having
a store in downtown Vancouver or
downtown Toronto, if I didn't have
a store already there that has representation, "
he said.
Pop-up stores designed to provide
a temporary boost in busy
locales are also a possibility.
" It could be there for only a
year, " Dubois said, " so there's all
kinds of ways of making the ultimate
goal met, which is to deliver
as many cars and getting the
brand as known as possible. "
Imperium would be far from
alone in migrating to locations
with increased exposure.
A decade after Tesla opened
" Car dealerships are a destination
for people prepared to
make a purchase, but they really
don't have that storefront visibility
of a shopping centre, " Correia
said. " I think that's where it's a
huge advantage for a location like
Yorkdale. "
The mall also carves out dedicated
charger-equipped parking
spaces that let the brands stay
active on test drives.
As shopping trends continue to
evolve, Correia expects more automakers,
including the traditional
brands, to consider opening storefronts
in the mall.
Indeed, more established
brands are showing an appetite for
new types of showrooms.
Hyundai Canada, for one,
announced in April that it
will open an " EV boutique " in
Montreal this spring. The standalone
location on Saint-Catherine
Street in the city's downtown is
the first shop of its kind in North
America opened by a mainstream
automaker, the company said.
- ANC
Dubois: Be it through a
showroom or a pop-up or
service centre, the goal for
Imperium is to " deliver as many
cars and getting the brand as
known as possible. "
FILE PHOTO
santanderconsumer.ca
Hyundai Canada announced in April that it will open an
" EV boutique " in Montreal this spring. SUPPLIED RENDERING
http://www.santanderconsumer.ca
Automotive News Canada - May 2022

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