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Elon Musk Addresses New Jersey's Tesla Store Ban
An anonymous reader writes "On Tuesday, we discussed news that New Jersey is trying to ban Tesla stores, which would force the company to sell through car dealerships instead. Now, Elon Musk has prepared a response: 'The reason that we did not choose to do this is that the auto dealers have a fundamental conflict of interest between promoting gasoline cars, which constitute virtually all of their revenue, and electric cars, which constitute virtually none. Moreover, it is much harder to sell a new technology car from a new company when people are so used to the old. Inevitably, they revert to selling what's easy and it is game over for the new company. The evidence is clear: when has an American startup auto company ever succeeded by selling through auto dealers? The last successful American car company was Chrysler, which was founded almost a century ago, and even they went bankrupt a few years ago, along with General Motors. Since the founding of Chrysler, there have been dozens of failures, Tucker and DeLorean being simply the most well-known. In recent years, electric car startups, such as Fisker, Coda, and many others, attempted to use auto dealers and all failed.'"
In New Jersey, you still aren't even allowed to pump your own gas, due to a successful lobby by gas station owners ... in 1949. it's all "full service". never underestimate the power of crappy special interest lobbies in New Jersey.
i could live a little longer in this prison
If you want to register a vehicle that you've purchased out of state in NJ, you have to pay sales tax on it, unless it was previously registered at your former address in the state where it was purchased. So basically, if you live in NJ and want a Tesla, you have to pay sales tax (and possibly registration fees) in the state you purchase it, and then pay sales tax AGAIN in order to register it in NJ.
That's true in most states. I got lucky in that I'd bought my car ~7 months before moving from New York City to Chicago...had I bought it 2 months later, I would have been stuck with sales tax in both states.
That said, as egregious as this is, it is nothing compared to the bullshit New York City and New York State inflict upon their residents. When I moved out of the state, I had to pay a punitive tax for having the audacity of leaving New York state. I kid you not. At around $3k, it's enough to hurt, but just under the amount that would make a lawsuit overturning this doubtlessly unconsitituional tax financially worthwile. That said, after this experience I will never willingly live in New York state again.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
It is illegal for a car company to open its own dealerships. That is the point of the law, they are required to have a middleman.
Tesla could make a deal with John Smith to sell him cars wholesale, and have John Smith re-sell them to the public at a huge markup with hidden fees and sketchy high pressure sales tactics... That's what normal car companies do. Lots of people hate that system. I intend to buy a Tesla for my next car, because I've hated ever interaction I've ever had with a normal dealership -- even though Teslas are out of what I consider my normal price range for a car, even though the range limit is kind of a bummer, even though I don't really want an electric car, I'll accept those downsides just to avoid dealing with the scumbags that run car dealers around here. Apparently Elon Musk agrees that there's some kind of market value in selling to people liike me, which is why he is trying direct-to-customer sales.