More Than Just New Teslas: Meet The Men Driving The EV Resale Market In Nova Scotia
HALIFAX — Around the end of 2019, Dave Giles left his job as a trainer at NSCC to help start an electric vehicle company.
His colleagues thought he’d lost his mind.
“My co-workers said, ‘you’re crazy. This will never fly. You guys won’t be in business in a year,’” Giles told Huddle in a recent interview.
Giles said very few people thought starting an EV business from scratch was a good idea. And that was before the pandemic hit.
However, he says the business, All EV Canada, has grown substantially over the past year and a half. The company acquired another electric vehicle (EV) dealer in PEI, may be on the verge of much wider Canadian expansion and did it all without any pandemic support from the government.
Giles chalks the success up to a combination of a unique business model and a rapidly growing interest in electric vehicles.
All EV Canada is the first dealership in Nova Scotia that exclusively sells used electric vehicles (or EVs, as Giles calls them).
The business was born in part out of a relationship Giles had with Jeff Farwell, the former president of Ambassatours and Murphy’s Restaurant.
Giles had helped Farwell with some technical fixes for Ambassatours’ Harbour Hoppers, so when he a few others struck out to create an EV company they asked Farwell to lead it.
“I could see the trend changing. Electric vehicles seemed to be becoming more talked about, there was more adoption happening. I knew it was a trend that was happening faster than what others were seeing,” Giles said.
Giles figured with Farwell’s business acumen, and his and his other partners’ technical and industry knowledge, they could make it work.
So far, they seem to be doing that.
More Than Just Teslas
Say electric vehicle to most people and they probably picture a sleek Tesla Roadster with a price tag creeping close to $300,000.
Farwell, All EV Canada’s CEO, told Huddle that’s a product of Tesla’s overwhelming success but not necessarily the reality of the EV market they’re operating in.
“A lot of people will come by asking about Teslas because that’s the first thing they think of when it comes to electric. But Tesla is a higher price point for people so having the other electric vehicles available is very important. We sell tons of [Nissan] Leafs and Chevy Volts,” he said.
Farwell said most of All EV’s businesses is focused on vehicles that sell for about $50,000 or less. Most of their cars come from auctions or trade-ins to traditional dealerships as owners upgrade to newer models. Many of their cars sell for somewhere in the teens, and right there’s a Nissan Leaf on the lot going for about $10,000.
That lower price point is one piece of the company’s broad strategy to drive EV adoption in Nova Scotia.
Farwell said governments and car manufacturers are both pushing hard to get more people buying EVs, “so to think [that adoption] is not coming is foolish.”
“Now, it’s not a sprint, it’s going to be a marathon. It’s going to be maybe 20-30 years to full adoption and I would say we’re still in the early adopter’s stage,” Farwell said.
Governments, Manufacturers Pushing EVs
EV adoption numbers in Nova Scotia are still quite low. But a few things suggest it may soon take off.
According to Nova Scotia Power, there are about 500 electric vehicles registered in the province today. There are also more than 100 public charging stations, with most concentrated in the Halifax area.
A report from the Ecology Action Centre found that electric vehicle adoption in the province “lags behind other jurisdictions across North America,” with EVs representing less than one percent of new vehicle sales.
In some parts of North America, as many as 10 percent of new vehicles sold are EVs.
However, the report also says recent investments in public charging infrastructure, combined with government rebates and education and awareness initiatives “have alleviated some barriers to adoption.”
The federal government has been giving rebates on EV purchases for years. Earlier this year, the Nova Scotia government added its own rebate on top of the federal one.
Giles said these rebates address one of the biggest barriers to EV adoption, cost, and expects sales to spike because of them.
“I really think that within the next year to two years we’re going to see a huge jump in people buying electric vehicles. The incentives really do help,” he said.
Your EV Questions Answered
Along with the price, the other significant barrier keeping most people from buying an EV is education: most people have no idea what it’s like to actually own one.
Farwell said that’s why All EV doesn’t really operate like a traditional used car dealer.
He said they will spend hours walking clients through the ins and outs of EV ownership. The most common questions are about range and ease of charging, but people also want to know about maintenance, longevity, seasonality, and a host of other things.
Farwell said he’s even sent technicians to people’s condos to try and work through how they could charge their car at home.
“We’re certainly not that hard, traditional used car sales pitch,” he said.
Meanwhile, Giles and his team of technicians put serious time into EV education initiatives.
All EV runs a regular information workshop that teaches people about electric vehicles. The shop has even hacked up a Tesla, revealing its guts to better demonstrate to people how EVs work.
“We try to be more about building the relationships within the community and giving the education and answering questions. We have a lot of people come in and take our clinics, learn about the cars, and then they might buy a brand new one … from another dealer. And that’s good. It still helps the community and it helps bring EVs to light,” Giles said.
Giles believes the work All EV has done has set them apart as the go-to outfit for EV service and repairs and that reputation and community building has set the company up well for the coming EV boom.
“I really believe we’re already three years ahead of everybody else, including dealerships and where they are even with their own products because we’re doing things that they haven’t even had to deal with yet,” he said.
“But that’s the world of EV that’s what we’re so excited about. It’s not that we’re selling a boring car that’s good for the environment. We’re selling cars that are good for the environment that’s also exciting.”