, but others will always need a brick-and-mortar store.
"There are ways to get consumers the feeling of more buying online and the direct-to-consumer type of experience" without full commitment to the agency model, Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights at Edmunds, said. But,"It does feel like the balance hasn't quite been found yet." Meanwhile, the percent of car-buyers who order their vehicles entirely online still remains very low, according to CDK.
"Because of the supply problems that have happened for three or so years, people got really used to ordering from a factory and ordering in-transit — but they did it at the dealership," Dave Thomas, CDK director of content marketing, told Insider. EVs were"going to be the catalyst to jumpstart an agency-type environment," he added, but the need for in-person EV education has kept buyers coming back in-person, at least for now.