NC At It Again: Trying to Ban Tesla Direct Sales Model

[Wild Cobra]

You're bordering on re ation. The mental gymnastics you maneuver to make any reality conform to your narrow and misguided worldview is a absolutely astounding. .

Do you understand the concept if "what if?"

[scott]

Heard on the radio that Tesla's CEO (I forget his name) was in Texas to meet with Perry to talk about getting to sell his cars directly to consumers in Texas. Given Perry's love to steal businesses from California, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of Perry & the state leg working out some deal for Tesla to relocate it's manufacturing operations from California to Texas in return for a boatload of tax breaks and some kind of law that allows them to sell directly to Texas consumers.

I haven't kept up so I'm not sure where in the process it is (and there are only two more days the house will meet to vote this session) but there was a bill to let MFG of Electric Vehicles be exempt from using the dealer model in TX.

The Auto Dealer's lobby is huge, and fights hard to protect their fiefdom. Their greatest fear is Toyota opening a company-owned dealership across the street from their plant.

The middlemen must protect what is "theirs"

Lol @ Libertarian Wild Cobra twisting into knots to defend the statutorily protected middleman. "Less government!"

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Do you understand the concept if "what if?"

Do you understand the concept of 'mental gymnastics."

"What if" <insert made up mental gymnastics nonsense that exonerates dumbass' political allegiance>

You would be living next to Auschwitz and saying "what if they are just making pool cleaning supplies there?"

[Wild Cobra]

Lol @ Libertarian Wild Cobra twisting into knots to defend the statutorily protected middleman. "Less government!"

I once thought you to be a smart person. However, when you casually eliminate possible reasons, and target someone for no reason...

You are just another stupid adolescent bully.

Did I say anyplace in my posts I agree this legislation was proper?

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Does anyone not think WC is a moron or is everyone just a 'stupid adolescent bully?'

[LnGrrrR]

No, WC is pretty much just stupid.

Now, I'm not saying she did, but what if WC's mom smoked a lot of meth? Not saying she DID! But what if?

[Wild Cobra]

No, WC is pretty much just stupid.

Now, I'm not saying she did, but what if WC's mom smoked a lot of meth? Not saying she DID! But what if?

It's the repeated attacks that Scott makes of me for no reason. I must have really punked him bad before, and he hasn't gotten over it yet, so yes, I retaliated.

I do not tolerate well, people twisting what I say.

[LnGrrrR]

WC, people wouldn't give you a hard time if you wouldn't throw out baseless speculation like "What if he lied?" Why would be do that? Do you have any proof? Etc etc

It would be like if I said, "What if Obama only authorized so many drones because he had an inside AQ member who told him that each hit was legit?" or some other nonsense. Your be right to shoot that down.

[baseline bum]

LOL, WC accuses people of twisting his words when you post his quotes verbatim

[Wild Cobra]

WC, people wouldn't give you a hard time if you wouldn't throw out baseless speculation like "What if he lied?" Why would be do that? Do you have any proof? Etc etc

It would be like if I said, "What if Obama only authorized so many drones because he had an inside AQ member who told him that each hit was legit?" or some other nonsense. Your be right to shoot that down.

Since when is a "what if" question baseless? It wouldn't be "what if" if there was proof, would it?

[LnGrrrR]

Since when is a "what if" question baseless? It wouldn't be "what if" if there was proof, would it?

Because it implies that there might be something behind the what if, some sort of reason. Again, if I said, "What if WC was a child molester?" implies I might have some reason to believe that, not that Im just throwing out random questions.

[scott]

But WHAT IF Wild Cobra is a child molester?

Needs to be asked.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

It's always about someone else and never stupidity from WC. He is always 'taken out of context,' 'misquoted,' and 'being bullied.'

[Wild Cobra]

Wow...

You guys must be getting tired of me owning you, so you have to be petty at .

[baseline bum]

But do you molest children?

[boutons_deux]

Tesla Rides High, But Faces Formidable Foe: Car Dealers



A Tesla Model S drives outside the Tesla factory in Fremont, Calif., on June 22. The electric car was named Automobile of the Year by Automobile Magazine and Car of the Year by Motor Trend.
Model S Alpha, in black, and the Telsa Roadster behind it.


Tesla Motors, the American maker of luxury electric cars, has been riding a wave of good publicity.

Its Model S sedan (base priced at $62,400, after federal tax credits) was just named Motor Trend Car of the Year. Reviewers at Consumer Reports gave the lithium-ion battery powered vehicle a rave.

And the company, headed by billionaire innovator Elon Musk, 41, posted a profit for the first time in its 10-year history — powered in part by zero-emission environmental credits.

But Tesla also finds itself, and its business model, under sustained attack by a formidable foe: the National Automobile Dealers Association, one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Washington with a strong network of state chapters.

The dealers say they have no quibble with the quality and allure of Tesla's products. What they object to is the Palo Alto-based manufacturer's efforts to sell the electric car directly to consumers rather than through independently owned dealer franchises.

Tesla's model is often compared to the one used by consumer electronics giant Apple.

"We want to cut out the middleman," says Diarmuid O'Connell, vice president for business development at Tesla. "We're a bad fit for the dealer system."

The dealers' response?

"Buying an iPad is not buying a car," says David Hyatt of the national association, which, along with member chapters, has taken their franchise fight to the courts and to state legislatures across the nation.

It's a battle between a deep-pocketed interest group, which last year contributed more than $3.2 million to candidates, and a fearless entrepreneur.

And it's just heating up.

Battles Emerge State By State

A bill being considered in North Carolina, where there are currently 80 Teslas on the road and another 60 expected, would prevent the company from selling vehicles online. In Virginia, the state denied the company a dealer license to open a store.

Texas lawmakers are expected to ignore an effort by Tesla to gain an exception to strict franchise laws that prohibit factory-owned dealerships. Last year, there were only 43 registered Teslas in the state.

In both Massachusetts and New York, legal efforts by franchise dealers to block Tesla's efforts were rejected — including attempts to shut down three Tesla stores and two service centers in New York.

Wrote New York Supreme Court Justice Raymond J. Elliott III: "Dealers cannot utilize the Franchised Dealer Act as a means to sue their compe ors."

An effort in Minnesota to rewrite franchise law to prevent vehicle manufacturers from operating a dealership died in the Legislature.

But these are expected to be the early rounds.

The franchise fight in Massachusetts has moved to the Legislature. Minnesota dealers plan to submit new legislation next year. And there are also private battles about which O'Connell declined to elaborate.
Tesla workers cheer on the first Tesla Model S cars sold during a rally at the Tesla factory in Fremont, Calif., in June.

"We don't underestimate the dealers," he said. "The franchise dealer system was, at its inception, set up to protect the dealers from manufacturers coming in and competing with them."

Tesla, which paid off early a $465 million low-interest government loan it received in 2009, insists that it presents little compe ion to the dealers. O'Connell characterizes the 10,000 to 15,000 cars it will sell this year domestically a "rounding error" for the big guys.

"This is absurd on its face," he said.

The company currently has 37 stores and galleries worldwide, 27 of them in the U.S., says Tesla spokeswoman Shanna Hendriks. It plans to open about 15 more locations this year with about half the openings in Europe and Asia.

It also has 24 service centers in the U.S. and 41 worldwide. Hendriks says the company plans to add approximately 30 service locations worldwide in 2013 – about half in the U.S.

Tesla argues that its electric product would get lost on a combustion engine lot; that its service needs are low and different than those at traditional franchises; its employees specifically trained and immersed in the car's technology; and its one-price, no-haggle policy anathema to the franchisee legacy.

"Ultimately," O'Connell says, "our ambition is to build a great car company, and our mission is to catalyze a mass market for electric vehicles."

"Why is it the [dealer franchise] market needs to be protected in this absolutist fashion?" he says. "There's a future out there where we might sell our product through a franchise dealer, but we're not there yet."

The Dealers Choice

Road & Track magazine describes the advent of the franchise system of independently owned and operated auto dealers as a way to enable "early automakers to get paid as soon as they shipped vehicles to the dealer."

The system long worked well, with dealers selling at a markup that brought healthy profits, according to the magazine, and the birth of muscular state laws preventing manufacturers from directly competing with the dealers.

And though the nature of the nation's economy has changed dramatically (why can't consumers buy cars online like everything else, Tesla asks), the dealers are holding tight to a structure as American as apple pie and essential to the health of communities.

"If manufacturers control dealership networks, there won't be dealerships in small towns — they'd just be where the big box stores are," says Bill Wolters, longtime head of the Texas Automobile Dealers Association. "Every year, there are bills that would weaken the franchise laws." Tesla's effort to change a state statute that prohibits manufacturers of new motor vehicles from operating a dealership, he says, is just the latest.

But perhaps the most persistent.

Both sides are not underestimating the determination of the other to prevail.

"I sat down in Palo Alto with Elon Musk, hat in hand, and said we want to partner with you, you can have it exactly as you want it — 'Tesla of Austin,' " said Wolters of the Texas dealers association. "You can do it just as you want to, within our law, you just can't own the showroom."

Musk, Wolters recalled, didn't cotton to the suggestion, leaving the room quickly, but not before pledging to spend an inordinate amount of money to battle automobile franchise laws.

Wolters noted, however, that he was taken for a nice drive in one of Musk's Teslas before heading back to Texas.

"He's just determined to do it his own way," Wolters says.

http://www.npr.org/2013/05/19/184882...s?sc=17&f=1001

[Drachen]

Just saw another one on wurzbach this morning. Its a pretty car. I dig the headlights.

[TeyshaBlue]

Just saw another one on wurzbach this morning. Its a pretty car. I dig the headlights.

Yeah, I saw my first one last week on 121. Much sharper in person, even tho they're pretty slick in the pictures.

[coyotes_geek]

Yeah, I saw my first one last week on 121. Much sharper in person, even tho they're pretty slick in the pictures.

Meh. It's no Ford LTD....

[TeyshaBlue]

Thank God.

[Drachen]

what you can't see in that picture is the led running lights on the bottom of the headlights, I am a sucker for this. Audi does it too.

[TeyshaBlue]

what you can't see in that picture is the led running lights on the bottom of the headlights, I am a sucker for this. Audi does it too.

coyotes_geek has these on his LTD. Makes it look just like an Audi.

[Drachen]

coyotes_geek has these on his LTD. Makes it look just like an Audi.

not like this, it runs along the bottom of the headlights.

[TeyshaBlue]

not like this, it runs along the bottom of the headlights.

[Drachen]

DP