Slashdot Mirror
Tesla's Next Auto-Dealer Battleground State: Georgia
cartechboy (2660665) writes [Elon] Musk and Tesla's biggest hurdle in the U.S. has been bypassing conventional dealerships and selling directly to customers. This concept is something that's illegal in many states thanks to a nationwide patchwork of decades-old franchise laws. Tesla's latest battle is taking place in Georgia where dealers allege that the start-up company is in violation of the state's franchise laws. Not surprisingly, Tesla's fighting back. To sell cars in Georgia, Tesla had to agree to sell fewer than 150 vehicles directly to consumers in the state. Last week the Georgia Automobile Dealers Association complained that Tesla sold 173 vehicles. Tesla hasn't publicly commented on how many vehicles it has sold in Georgia. We've seen time and time again how this story ends, and the writing is clearly on the wall for this case.
Another bit of writing on the wall, though, as reported by the L.A. Times, is that recent electric car sales in the U.S. have been stagnant.
cars people aren't allowed to buy aren't getting bought? whoda thunk it?
There is no way in hell those franchise laws were put in place for the benefit of you and me. They were put in place merely to protect a lucrative profit stream for special interests.
"electric car sales in the U.S. have been stagnant."
"Tesla had to agree to sell fewer than 150 vehicles"
I don't think that is a coincidence.
Captcha: congest
Do 'States' Rights' have any applications that aren't kind of embarrassing?
The reason they're stagnant is because there is only one brand worth buying them from is Tesla.
Toyota/Honda has a decent lineup in the upper range with their plugin hybrids but if I'm going to plunk down 50k, it might as well be a Tesla or I can get a gas powered car with identical economy for half that price from better brands.
Perhaps one of the Germans will start entering the market with a better option but the Chevy Volt is crap, Ford and Fiat publicly state they rather don't do it, Fisker was legislated out of business, the rest of them are simply putting in a model because they have to and it shows; it's the same frame as a gas powered car with some batteries slapped into it.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
My local dealers in Georgia do not carry electric cars. To get an electric car you have to order it through them (if their manufacturer actually makes one) or buy online. In other words, car dealers are hurting electric car sales.
I hope Tesla is successful. Car dealerships are an anachronism and offer no value to the consumer. They are just needless friction in the car market and just adds expense and bullshit for us consumers.
Isn't Georgia one of those states where a majority of the folks rail against government intrusion and regulations into the private sector?
Must be nice to talk out of both sides of your mouth. Maybe they should get a gig as a sideshow freak.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
from the summary:
"...as reported by the L.A. Times, is that recent electric car sales in the U.S. have been stagnant"
from the LA Times:
"Sales of electric drive vehicles are stuck at about 3.6% of all new car sales for 2014"
"And that's during an otherwise robust sales season. Total figures for August were higher than any time in the last decade."
So the absolute number of electric car sales is increasing but their market share is not. The reporter, one "Charles Fleming," seems not to comprehend that a fixed percentage of an increasing value is itself an increasing value. "Stagnant," is the wrong term to describe an increase in sales. Math is hard.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
That's how it's supposed to work, right?
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Isn't Georgia one of those "small government" red-states? How's that working out?
Oh, yea... And we are also one of the most corrupt states too! The Attorney General was fined this week for withholding evidence in an ethics case that might have implicated the Governor.
One of the other articles on the L.A. times is reporting that "U.S. auto sales surge in August to month's highest level in years" so - it's lies, damn lies and statistics time. Electric car sales fell 0.1% as a proportion of total car sales during a period that included the car sales at the "highest level in years."
Consider also that Tesla is still on back-order status and they are gearing up to release two new models of cars. Other than the Tesla, only Nissan has a pure electric generally available on the market - the Leaf - which sold over 120,000 cars last year. See, Wikipedia. Ford's focus is also out there, but only in select markets.
Shorter: there's only one mass-market electric car on the market. The Tesla Model S, while definitely a beautiful car, doesn't have the production volume to compete in a market share battle - that's not Tesla's bag - yet. The "stagnation" story is more of the knee-jerk car guy rejection of electrics that has been bouncing around in the media for 30 years now.
Because: 1) Dealers sell more than one brand. They will steer the buyers towards other brands if the buyer is hesitant about Tesla. Dealers don't care about one brand loyalty - just want to sell as many as possible in a month. 2) Dealers will definitely try to sell more gas cars as they break down more frequently and the $$$ for dealers is the service dept. They barely make a profit in the sales dept. 3) Tesla has a specific idea on how to do customer experience. Dealers are the worst in this category. Tesla wants to avoid this.
And how much of that stagnancy is because of a lack of options to choose from? I mean, really when you look at it there are VERY few models available as full EV - Tesla, and then a couple little entry levels that have been given EV versions... There's almost nothing available in between, and absolutely nothing in the small/mid SUV or mid-sized sedan or sport coupe markets to choose from.
Until there are more models to choose from that span all the market segments, there's always going to be a limited subset of buyers who will be willing to purchase these as their primary car...
Democrats from 1872-1950s are the current republicans, founded by southern democrats of the time who disliked the north democrats policy to not fight, but accept the decision.
When you cant win, ad hominem.
Tesla *has* publicly commented on how many vehicles it has sold in Georgia, it says that the 150 maximum is for a calendar year, while the 173 figure is for October to June and it hasn't hit the 150 mark for 2014.
http://www.autonews.com/articl...
sterling allies of the separate but equal doctrine and creation science, Georgias firm stance against competition from Tesla shouldnt surprise anyone. Texas and Ohio do the same thing when it comes to selling cars in the interest of preserving a relic of a dying baby boomer era. We all know and love the car salesman for his even handed approach, calm demure, and truthful nature right?
another issue of stagnation is price. Outside of California and New York, electric cars largely dont have subsidies. this is partly due to the franchise racket, and partly because other states dont have stringent EPA mandates or emissions standards like california. Tesla is also, according to their website a 'premium' electric vehicle company. The average price for a Model S is around $90,000 US so among the worst wealth gap in history, the remenence of a major housing crisis, a looming student debt crisis, and rampant american unemployment its no wonder most people arent exactly leaping at the opportunity to saddle themselves with this. 90k is, or was, a decent chunk of a home for most people before the collapse.
target demographics are also not to be forgotten. Millenials like myself do not care for cars. give us light rail, busses, and trains but ultimately the thing that matters most to us is not that symbol by which our parents projected their status. cars are expensive to maintain and own for us because we earn less than our parents do and, once again, are commonly saddled with an enormous amount of student debt. make it as futuristic as you want, thats fine, but that centre console only does half the things our smartphones are capable of, and requires us to multitask and drive while using it.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Surely only a bunch of liberal Commies would pass laws that ban citizens from selling legal things to each other? Shame on all those Commie legislators in Georgia!
They can sell more than one brand, but what's stopping someone from setting up a dealership that sells only electric cars and installs & services the home charging systems?
the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
In other words, electric car sales are stagnant because of a supply problem, not a demand one. They can't produce more cars and they essentially are sold out months in advance.
As a proud owner of a Tesla (6 months and 15K miles so far), I can't imagine buying a non-electric car in the future. I live on the east coast and the supercharger network is built out around me well enough that I don't have any range anxiety at all.
Several friends are looking to see how I do this winter before putting money down themselves. A couple others already put down a ridiculous amount to be on the list to buy a Tesla Model X when it finally hits production.
Dealers should be concerned. If the big auto manufacturers go the Tesla way, dealers won't be making much in service contracts in the future.
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
Other than the Tesla, only Nissan has a pure electric generally available on the market
That's not entirely true, currently available full EVs include the:
That's not an exhaustive, but those are commonly available to buy today in the US.
Tesla had a 2 month backlog (time from order to delivery of a car) of 2 months early this year. In the spring it grew to 3 months. Early summer they upped production to address this, but backlog grew to 4 months. Tesla is building more cars than ever, yet the wait keeps increasing.
"Stagnant" my ass.
All this for a car that was introduced almost 2 years ago and has had virtually no updates during this time. Shows how far ahead of other manufacturers they were.
I agree with you. I'm also the owner of a Tesla (18 months, 19K miles). Tesla is constrained by batteries. They can't make them fast enough. There's also a huge demand for the model X with thousands of pre-orders yet it is sight unseen. This is from a company that does no advertizing other than their showrooms.
This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
We've had our Model S for a year and a half. Last winter was one of the coldest in memory in Chicago.
Although the range was reduced somewhat, maybe 25% when it was super cold it was no problem whatsoever. Interestingly enough, the reduced mileage on our Mariner hybrid was about the same.
Greed is the root of all evil.
Telsa should be able to operate showrooms where it wants and their competitors will either improve their business practices or perish, period. Let the free market sort this out.
Whenever I see a dealership invoking some obscure franchise law, what I hear is: "We're a dinosaur that can't compete against Telsa."
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.