Gentilini Motors, a Woodbine, N.J.-based family of dealerships, has recently launched a number of "green" initiatives, including a 238 KW solar array that provides 60 percent of the energy at its Ford dealership.
What prompted the environmental initiative?
Basically it was an awareness by the family about our responsibility to take care of the environment and our community, and to reduce energy use and carbon emissions. We understand that a large business like ours puts a huge strain on traditional energy and water resources.
We've got more than 1,000 solar panels across the rooftops and the ground space at our Ford dealership. It cut our energy usage in half. When we built our new Chevy store in 2013, we included specialized LED lighting systems on the entire property that turn on and off automatically. We also have waterless toilets in that store, and the water in the sinks shuts off automatically.
You also sell hybrid vehicles at the Ford store. How has that affected your service department?
We sell the Fusion and Escape. We've been trying to get involved with the Focus electric, but that has been reserved for metropolitan areas. We're in the suburbs. On the Chevy side, we've got the Cruise diesel and Malibu hybrid. We had the Volt, but it’s primarily being targeted at highly populated city areas.
We have a charging station in the service area of the Chevy dealership. We've had to purchase a lot of tools to work on those vehicles. The funny thing is, you purchase the tools but I don't think we've actually had many hybrids come in for service. We don't keep a lot of those parts on hand because you don't see them come in for anything. We can get anything we need within a day or two.
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