California’s gas-car phaseout brings turmoil to mom-and-pop gas stations
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Electric cars are on sale in California, and they’re not likely to go on sale soon. Photo: AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian
In May, California dealers saw long lines of car buyers checking out three new electric models that are coming from Tesla and three other companies. The buyers were mainly college-age white young men with well-paying jobs. They were the dream car buyers. The reality was a different story: They were the only ones who would buy cars.
And, by coincidence, that’s a key reason why prices in the state are going up.
California now has one of the highest-priced car sales in the country, with buyers on an average price of $49,000 and sometimes even more. But even as it takes in record amounts of gas, the state is now dealing with a flood of competitors who are snapping up California’s gas-guzzler spots and forcing dealers to cut into profits.
“We knew we had to act fast when there were more electric cars out there,” said Mike Gioffre, the owner of a Buick dealership near the state’s San Francisco airport. “The cars are already driving on the road, but the drivers are not.”
So Gioffre was quick to get his show room up and running.
“The whole reason we took the job was the electric cars were coming online,” he said. “Once the Tesla and the Chevy were out, there was no way we were passing.”
But now, the influx of electric cars has forced him to raise his prices. He raised them by an average of $20,000 for the last seven months — from $45,500 to $60,000 — to try to recoup the loss of sales on the new battery-powered cars. He’s also cut into profits by about $60,000 in the past two months, he estimates.
California now has one of the highest-priced car sales in the country, with buyers on an average price of $49,000 and sometimes even more. But even as it takes in record amounts of gas, the state is now dealing with a flood of competitors who are snapping up California’s gas-guzzler spots and forcing dealers to cut into profits. “We knew we had to act fast when there were more electric cars out there,” said