Educating consumers is widely considered a key to increasing sales of electric vehicles. So RockED and J.D. Power are teaming up to create more EV experts.

The auto sales enablement platform announced an alliance with J.D. Power to launch the J.D. Power EV Expert Certification program, powered by RockED.

The program is designed to deliver data-driven, actionable insights via RockED’s mobile microlearning platform to improve EV sales and service, providing dealership staff with the EV expertise customers are looking for through an “expertly designed curriculum and bite-sized video lessons.”

Users who complete the curriculum and pass a skills assessment will become certified by J.D. Power as an EV expert for that calendar year.

“There is a profound need for more informed dealership sales and service staff to meet the expectations of EV owners and shoppers,” RockED chief operating officer Greg Gates said. “This collaboration will help ensure dealership personnel are equipped to serve the demand.”

J.D. Power’s 2024 research found 27% of car shoppers reject EVs due to a lack of information, and showed EV buyers have lower satisfaction with the sales process — particularly with dealer personnel and their vehicle knowledge and expertise — compared to buyers of gas-powered vehicles.

In the service department, the J.D. Power 2024 U.S. Customer Service Index Study showed EV owners’ level of trust at just 39% compared to 50% for gas vehicle owners, while satisfaction with service advisors was 48 points lower (on a 1,000-point scale) among EV owners than owners of gas vehicles.

“This collaboration with RockED enables the industry to keep pace with the evolving EV market,” J.D. Power vice president of automotive retail Stewart Stropp said. “We want to help ensure dealer personnel have the support they need, when they need it, to sell and service more electric vehicles.”

The companies said the J.D. Power EV Expert Certification is not a replacement for OEM or dealership group training. Rather, it’s designed to complement it, offering industry findings and analysis with RockED’s mobile-learning capabilities.

RockED said its micro-learning approach breaks down complex topics into “easily digestible, bite-sized” modules to help learners quickly grasp essential concepts and apply them in real-world scenarios.

“Together, RockED and J.D. Power are providing automotive industry professionals with the opportunity to gain credibility and improve performance,” Gates said. “The J.D. Power EV Certification program is set to deliver a learning and enablement experience to transform how the automotive industry views learning and values skill-building. It’s why we created RockED — and it’s working.”