Swope Family of Dealerships Celebrates 70th Anniversary
Swope Family of Dealerships Celebrates 70th Anniversary by Collecting Clean Energy and Memories.
ELIZABETHTOWN, KENTUCKY— JANUARY 7, 2022. The Swope Family of Dealerships announced today it will be celebrating 70 years of serving the automotive needs of Central Kentucky throughout 2022. The yearlong celebration will be centered around two themes that the Swope Family of Dealerships believes is vital to its organization’s culture: the positive vehicle ownership journey of its customers and continued investment in the Central Kentucky region.
Established in 1952, the Swope Family of Dealerships began when two entrepreneurial minded brothers, Sam and Bill Swope, traveled from Ohio to Kentucky to start their own vehicle dealerships. What began with one automotive franchise and two gas pumps is now ten brands being led by the second and third Swope generations. They represent Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, RAM, Toyota, Ford, Mitsubishi, Hyundai, Nissan and Genesis brands with six dealerships located in Elizabethtown and Radcliff, most of which are located side-by-side on a one-mile stretch of Dixie Highway that Bill Swope coined the “Miracle Mile” in the mid-1960’s.
The Swope Family of Dealerships plans to celebrate its platinum anniversary with two main initiatives. The first initiative, a commitment to clean energy, began in late 2021 when the group partnered with Freedom Solar to install a rooftop solar panel system. Freedom Solar leads the solar industry with the largest number of automotive industry installations, with relationships, installation capacity and deal flow that is second to none. Currently, the majority of Freedom’s commercial business can be attributed to servicing the automotive industry. Freedom’s goal is to install 250 MW among 2,500 auto dealers by December 2025.
“These are the first solar installations at any automotive dealership in Central Kentucky,” said Swope Family of Dealerships’ President and CEO Carl Swope. “All four installations are now complete and generating carbon free electricity. On average, they will offset 81% of our daily energy use, which includes showrooms; lots; and the growing number of electric charging stations. Additionally, we are evaluating installations at our three other dealerships in 2022.”
Swope — who was named the 2017 Time-Ally Dealer of the Year, a prestigious industry award — said his family is taking this action because their manufacturers are transitioning quickly to electric vehicles, and reducing the company’s carbon footprint is just the right thing to do. “Being environmentally responsible is increasingly a demand we are seeing among our customers, as well.”
The Swope Family of Dealerships had been contemplating the move to solar for some time after beginning its green initiatives in 2015 working with Daily Green Power of Elizabethtown on the installation of LED lighting. Together, the four rooftop solar projects include 1,900 high-efficiency SunPower 395-watt commercial solar panels, representing installed capacity of more than one megawatt (MW). The systems will produce more than 828,500 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of clean energy annually, which is enough to power more than 100 homes. The systems will offset 1.3 million pounds of CO2 emissions each year, which is like planting 9,700 trees or replacing 128 gas-powered cars with EVs.
The project details for each location are as follows:
● Swope Toyota, 1085 North Dixie Highway: 946 solar panels
● Swope Hyundai: 454 solar panels
● Swope Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram, 1070 North Dixie Highway: 400 solar panels
● Swope’s Cars of Yesteryear Museum, 1080 North Dixie Avenue: 100 solar panels
The second platinum celebration initiative is one focused on including Swope Family of Dealerships’ customers. “The Swope Family of Dealerships owes its success to its loyal customers, both internal and external. Our customers and our associates are the foundation of our business and the heart of our organization; we could not celebrate this milestone without their input,” said Swope. The organization plans to capture these memories by asking customers and associates to share photos or video of their joyful Swope memories on the Swope social media pages throughout the year. Each quarter the group will randomly draw a winner from those who have shared their memories; each winner will be presented with a platinum coin. More information about this celebration initiative is on any of the Swope Family of Dealerships’ social media pages. Links for each page are listed below.
• Swope Family of Dealerships:
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/SwopeAuto
• Swope Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram:
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/swopecdjr
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/swope_chrysler_dodge_jeep_ram_/
• Swope Toyota:
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/swopetoyota
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/swopetoyota/
• Bob Swope Ford:
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/BobSwopeFord
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/bobswopefordetown/
• Swope Mitsubishi:
Facebook-https://www.facebook.com/swopemitsubishi
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/swope.mitsubishi/
• Swope Hyundai:
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/swopehyundaietown
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/swopehyundai/
• Genesis of Elizabethtown:
Facebook-https://www.facebook.com/GenesisofElizabethtown
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/genesis_of_elizabethtown/
• Swope Freedom Plan:
Facebook-https://www.facebook.com/swopefreedomplan
• Swope Collision Center:
Facebook-https://www.facebook.com/swopeautocollision
• Auto Detailing & More:
Facebook-https://www.facebook.com/swopeadandm/
• Swope’s Cars of Yesteryear Museum:
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/SWOPEMUSEUM
• The Café @ Swope Toyota:
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/CafeatSwopeToyota
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/thecafeatswopetoyota/
For more information, visit https://www.swope.com. Additional Media Resources: Swope Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Solar Project: https://youtu.be/yUfhmfCC-So Swope Toyota Solar Project: https://youtu.be/4aDIIE6T-oc
Swope Hyundai Solar Project: https://youtu.be/2Nwhb8BwL1A
Swope Solar Project Photos:
https://swopedealershipsmy.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/sgifford_swope_com/EgzFFqeHdDVPgvqJlbG4My0Bs YD_h10slTFI-HwxgNA9mA?e=HpbNVS
