As I understood it, historically the primary value dealerships provided is when the automakers had a glut of supplies that they needed to get off the books to

As I understood it, historically the primary value dealerships provided is when the automakers had a glut of supplies that they needed to get off the books to make quarterly sales targets for Wall Street. They could stuff the dealership channel with all that excess inventory and count it as sold. [1] With EVs and the current semiconductor shortage, batteries/semis are in short supply and so production volumes are lower than demand, so there isn't a use case for dealerships that's apparent. Once EVs mature and excess inventory builds up and has to sit on the books of the automakers and depreciate on the lot waiting for buyers - the dealership model will look more interesting. The bean counters will then team up with marketing department to (re)introduce independent dealerships under a different branded customer UX name. [1] Chrysler adds dealer incentives to clear stock https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna12691116 https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna12691116