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Texas won't allow Tesla to sell electric cars directly

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Re: Texas won't allow Tesla to sell electric cars directly

#51

Post by ajross »

maeon3 wrote: post #31

Tesla said it best: "Tesla will sell its cars the way it wants. If some states don't allow that, then Tesla will simply sell them elsewhere." When a piece of a neural network becomes corrupt and entrenched beyond repair, (cancerous) the tumor or cancer fights to protect itself, there are two solutions to these kinds of problems. 1. One solution is what Musk is doing, treat the dealerships as a cancerous growth in the…

The metaphor is cute, but maybe overstated. Tesla isn't doing this because it's what a self healing network would do.

Tesla is doing this because it's a rapidly-growing startup whose production facilities are heavily oversubscribed already. They have no net downsides to giving up the "Texas" market for now, because they don't have enough cars to sell even without Texas (and the handful of other such states).

Eventually that won't be true. Once ramped up, they'll want that Texas market. And at that point someone will have to bend. Musk's bet is that at that point Texas will cave because they don't want to deny their voters the chance to purchase this great new car. Texas's "bet" (really the dealership lobbyists' bet) is that Tesla ultimately won't be successful and that by holding their ground here they will discourage other manufacturers from trying the same thing.

IMHO, things make much more sense when you argue in fact instead of metaphor.

Re: Texas won't allow Tesla to sell electric cars directly

#52

Post by btilly »

This is Interstate Commerce, pure and simple. What would be really nice is for Congress to pass a law saying these state laws are illegal and suddenly the floodgates would open.

Of course all of the car manufacturers will protest that, and their lobbyists are more powerful than Tesla's.

But the real plan is for Tesla to make cars and sell them where it can. In time as people see more and more of them being sold and winning awards, they will ask why they can't buy them. Tesla has to lay the groundwork for that now in as many states as it can, but at the moment production seems like more of a bottleneck for them than marketing and sales.

Re: Texas won't allow Tesla to sell electric cars directly

#53

Post by bob13579 »

kailuowang wrote: post #35
bob13579 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other car manufacturers can't sell directly. Why should Tesla get special rules?

It's mentioned in the article that joining the dealership network is relatively more difficult for a startup like Tesla than the other big manufacturers. Also I don't see why being able to sell directly to consumers should be count as a "special rule". On the contrary, being forced to find a dealer in the "network" to work between you and your consumer is.

It should be considered a "special rule" because an exception would be made for Tesla, and no one else (including other small car manufacturers). Either let every car manufacturer sell directly or don't.

Re: Texas won't allow Tesla to sell electric cars directly

#54

Post by michael_h »

bob13579 wrote: post #27
utnick wrote: post #14

Funny how similar it is to the alcohol situation. Its illegal for a brewery to sell beer directly to the public in Texas, they have to go through a middleman (distributor) that doesn't really provide value. Although in the last legislative session the rules got relaxed somewhat ( especially for brewpubs ), its still pretty similar.

Funny how you single out Texas for doing this. How is this different from other states?

I'm in Ohio and I can (and do) buy directly from the brewery, from single bottles to full barrels.

Re: Texas won't allow Tesla to sell electric cars directly

#55

Post by proland »

btilly wrote: post #52

This is Interstate Commerce, pure and simple. What would be really nice is for Congress to pass a law saying these state laws are illegal and suddenly the floodgates would open. Of course all of the car manufacturers will protest that, and their lobbyists are more powerful than Tesla's. But the real plan is for Tesla to make cars and sell them where it can. In time as people see more and more of them being sold and w…

It would be the car dealers protesting... I'm sure other car manufacturers would love to be able to sell their cars direct to consumer again.

Re: Texas won't allow Tesla to sell electric cars directly

#56

Post by jack-r-abbit »

jfb wrote: post #25
joshdance wrote: post #21

Was there a mistake in the article? It said that the legislative body would not meet again until 2015? Also, I wonder what affect Big Oil had on the outcome?

Texas has a part-time legislature. There's also no need to go looking for pantomime villains; car dealers are hugely powerful in local and state politics. They're the rock that Tesla will founder on.

That is taking "part time" to the extreme.

Re: Texas won't allow Tesla to sell electric cars directly

#57

Post by bob13579 »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #36
bob13579 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other car manufacturers can't sell directly. Why should Tesla get special rules?

The law was put in place to protect dealers who invested their own money in their infrastructure from predatory manufacturer practices. Tesla has no existing dealer network, and therefore has no need to have said non-existed dealer network protected from them.

Yes, I agree that the law is a shoddy law but that shouldn't allow Tesla to sell directly. Would small car manufacturers get special rules too?

Laws are laws. Either change the law or enforce it. That's fair. Not cronyism.

Re: Texas won't allow Tesla to sell electric cars directly

#58

Post by jonknee »

Rudism wrote: post #7
bratsche wrote: post #3

There's already a Tesla store in Houston. How did they open that store, and will they be able to keep it open? I've seen a couple Teslas driving around Dallas, and am hoping to see more.

I remember reading some time ago that Tesla's loop-hole for opening storefronts is that they don't actually sell cars to people there... they just inform people about the cars and answer their questions. When it's time to actually buy one, they sit you down at a internet terminal and you order over the web just as you would if you were purchasing from anywhere else.

I don't believe Texas even allows for in-store internet sales. Last I heard Tesla couldn't even inform people in the store how much the cars cost. Tesla also cannot deliver the vehicle to the customer, the customer must provide arrangements. Oh, no test drives either. It's absolutely ridiculous. I assume they opened the store just to have a better argument against the dealership cartel.

http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2013/04/24/tesla-has-eyes-f...

Re: Texas won't allow Tesla to sell electric cars directly

#59

Post by socialist_coder »

cobrausn wrote: post #19
thrownaway2424 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, by a federal court. The state, under the same governor who is still in office today, went to court and argued that Texas had a compelling interest in preventing people from having sex for reasons other than procreation.

Yeah, it's an example of government as envisioned by the founders working as intended - when someone at the state level overreaches, a federal court strikes it down (I'm hoping the same thing happens to this absurd law regarding dealer sales). This happens in more places than just Texas. Doesn't change the fact that your first statement is not factual anymore. Given time I think we (Texans) can eventually stop / vote…

Well, your current governor is Rick Perry so your recent track record on electing non-morons is pretty bad. Austin != Texas.

Re: Texas won't allow Tesla to sell electric cars directly

#60

Post by alexqgb »

cobrausn wrote: post #19
thrownaway2424 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, by a federal court. The state, under the same governor who is still in office today, went to court and argued that Texas had a compelling interest in preventing people from having sex for reasons other than procreation.

Yeah, it's an example of government as envisioned by the founders working as intended - when someone at the state level overreaches, a federal court strikes it down (I'm hoping the same thing happens to this absurd law regarding dealer sales). This happens in more places than just Texas. Doesn't change the fact that your first statement is not factual anymore. Given time I think we (Texans) can eventually stop / vote…

Glad to hear it. Just consider this poor bastard, who was recently sentenced by said morons to 50 years for the entirely non-violent act of shoplifting a package of ribs.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/31/willie-smith-ward-rib-theft_n_3365554.html

That's "justice", Texas style. Better than the Taliban's, I suppose. But not by much.

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