Tesla is unable to sell its vehicles directly to the public in Texas • Hacker News Board

Re: Tesla is unable to sell its vehicles directly to the public in Texas

#51

Post by muzz » Fri, Aug 23, 2013, 10:53 PM UTC

skaevola wrote: post #11

dylangs1030 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, that's my bad. I read it elsewhere[1], went to Tesla's site for official news, and couldn't find anything other than Advocacy. I'll try to change it. I put up the original title in the spirit of the guidelines, because "Advocacy: Texas" doesn't by itself mean anything in particular. And I haven't seen this story on Hacker News. [1]: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/nightline-fix-abc-news/why-texas...

You can buy a Tesla in Texas. You have to order it online and (as the page says) it will be delivered by a 3rd party. You can see plenty of them in Austin. Tesla also maintains two "showrooms", one in Austin and one in Houston where you can see the car, but cannot test drive it or discuss pricing. Tesla is not allowed to run its own dealerships in Texas, because the auto dealer's union has laws which prevent car manu…

By "union" you mean the lobbyists of the Texas Automobile Dealers Association right?

I've never heard of lobbying arms being referred to as "unions"

Re: Tesla is unable to sell its vehicles directly to the public in Texas

#52

Post by marvin » Fri, Aug 23, 2013, 10:55 PM UTC

jokoon wrote: post #21

some people want to kill the electric car

The dealerships in Texas don't really care about Tesla, they're just afraid that other car manufacturers will follow suit and undercut their business model.

Re: Tesla is unable to sell its vehicles directly to the public in Texas

#53

Post by kvanderd » Fri, Aug 23, 2013, 10:59 PM UTC

YooLi wrote: post #3

"Texas Bans the Sale of Tesla Vehicles" Title is misleading. Texas didn't ban the sale of Teslas but rather Teslas are incapable of being sold due to legislation that was added back in 2003. Still a problem, but it should at least be presented correctly.

Totally misleading.

We bought ours through the website. It is the ONLY way to buy one regardless of where you live.

Re: Tesla is unable to sell its vehicles directly to the public in Texas

#54

Post by grecy » Fri, Aug 23, 2013, 11:00 PM UTC

throwaway_yy2Di wrote: post #30

grecy wrote: post #7

Ahh, The American Way (TM) When a competitor offers a better product that you, make what they are doing illegal rather than competing with them. Stopping innovation in America since the 70s.

Is "since the 70's" some sort of ironic joke? US industries were extremely and overtly anti-competitive up until the deregulation of the 1970's. If competition is restricted now, it was far worse in the past. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staggers_Rail_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_Carrier_Act_of_1980 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_Deregulation_Act

> Is "since the 70's" some sort of ironic joke?

No. Some time ago the United States was a world leader in terms of the standard of living for the average citizen. Now it's dead last among developed countries, and by many measures, it's solidly among developing countries.

I, personally, think that fall from grace began around the 70's (ish) when the "We're the greatest" mentality put a stop to innovation.

Basically, the United States has remained where it was all those years ago, while other Developed countries have shot ahead.

Re: Tesla is unable to sell its vehicles directly to the public in Texas

#55

Post by saryant » Fri, Aug 23, 2013, 11:03 PM UTC

nicklovescode wrote: post #5

"Prior to the filing deadline, Tesla Motors reached out to Sen. Craig Estes (R-Wichita Falls) and Rep. Eddie Rodriguez (D-Austin) who agreed to file bills on our behalf. These bills would permit U.S.-based manufacturers of 100% electric- or battery-powered vehicles to sell directly to Texas consumers." A silly band-aid to ridiculous legislation.

This is a better overview:

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/04/23/teslas-efforts-texas-...

Re: Tesla is unable to sell its vehicles directly to the public in Texas

#56

Post by dylangs1030 » Fri, Aug 23, 2013, 11:03 PM UTC

guelo wrote: post #41

Does any other company get so many straight press releases consistently voted up on HN? BTW this is old, the referenced bills did not pass.

It's shocking how quickly this got to the top of the front page. People really, really like Tesla :)

Re: Tesla is unable to sell its vehicles directly to the public in Texas

#57

Post by chris_mahan » Fri, Aug 23, 2013, 11:05 PM UTC

It's ok. Instead, it will sell its cars in China.

Re: Tesla is unable to sell its vehicles directly to the public in Texas

#58

Post by dmayle » Fri, Aug 23, 2013, 11:10 PM UTC

jarrett wrote: post #44

unknownian wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>or Uber/Lyft/etc having to go through extortionary-like procedures in California? Forgive me for not knowing all the details, but what is the extortion in the fact that Taxi co's have to pay fees that Uber and Lyft don't? I'm guessing there is more to this than I know.

Extortion is perhaps not the most accurate word, going strictly by its definition. Anyway, the objection isn't to taxation of taxis, but rather to outright excluding new entrants to the taxi market. Which many cities do, via the medallion system.

I must admit, I don't see how it's extortion. It's capitalism at it's finest (by forcing the consideration of externalities as a free-market commodity). Since space in the streets is a fixed size-resource, supply and demand work to price medallions accordingly. If anything, the city sells medallions (referring to NYC) at a rate much lower than their actual value on the free market.

Re: Tesla is unable to sell its vehicles directly to the public in Texas

#59

Post by gnaritas » Fri, Aug 23, 2013, 11:12 PM UTC

muzz wrote: post #48

grecy wrote: post #7

Ahh, The American Way (TM) When a competitor offers a better product that you, make what they are doing illegal rather than competing with them. Stopping innovation in America since the 70s.

Why are you mischaracterizing problems due to a Texas state law as "The American Way (TM)"? Tesla does not have these problems in other states such as California.

Well Texas is where the real Americans are right? California's just a bunch of liberal hippie stoners. /s

Re: Tesla is unable to sell its vehicles directly to the public in Texas

#60

Post by gnaritas » Fri, Aug 23, 2013, 11:19 PM UTC

Shivetya wrote: post #23

skaevola wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk clearly wants Tesla to sell all of their products themselves ala Apple. His stated reason was that car dealer's cannot properly advertise the benefits of electric cars without undermining their gasoline car business and so he doesn't trust them to properly sell the car.

That does not explain away others who would relish the idea of setting up an electric only dealership. He is using an pretty damn thin excuse to not allow others to sell the cars. Sorry, but there are many other like minded individuals who would very much sell the cars the way he wants, they may even improve on the methods. Local dealers for electrics would provide the benefit of tighter integration with supporting b…

Local dealers don't help the consumer, they just make buying a car feel awful and add unnecessary middlemen making the car more expensive to the consumer. Consumers should be able to order direct from the factory without all the unnecessary useless and sleazy middleman who do nothing of value and still expect to profit.

The fact that standard practice at nearly all car dealerships is the old good cop bad cop routine between the salesman and the floor manager should tell you you're always being hustled. Whether you can win or not is irrelevant, you lost by being forced to play to begin with.