Utah Supreme Court Ruling Bars Direct Sales of Teslas Through a Subsidiary (arstechnica.com)

The Utah Supreme court has ruled on Monday that the state's regulators could prohibit an auto manufacturer from having ownership interest in a dealer. "In what the court called 'a narrow, legal decision,' it said that it wouldn't weigh in on whether allowing the state's Tax Commission to prohibit direct sales from Tesla's wholly owned subsidiary was the best policy for residents of Utah," reports Ars Technica. "Instead, the court said its job was simply to determine whether the commission could legally make that prohibition." From the report: Tesla created its subsidiary, Tesla UT, to be able to sell new cars in Utah, but the State Tax Commission ruled that the subsidiary needed a franchise agreement. Tesla UT entered into a partnership with its parent company, but the commission said Tesla couldn't have a financial interest in Tesla UT's franchise. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, "Attempts were made in 2015 and 2016 to change Utah law to accommodate Tesla, but the car dealers and other automakers rebuffed the efforts." A Tesla spokesperson told Ars, "The Utah ruling is disappointing for Tesla and all Utah consumers interested in consumer choice, free markets, and sustainable energy. We will pursue all options to ensure that Tesla can operate in Utah without restriction. In the meantime, we will continue to provide service and limited sales activities (through our used car license) at our location in South Salt Lake City."

Comments

The government won't save us!

[blindseer]

To those that think we need more government intrusion in our lives to save us from catastrophic anthropogenic global warming I give this incident as just one example of many on why we cannot rely on government to save us. If we want to see CAGW averted then we need to do this through non-government means.

We are going to see CAGW averted not because of government but in spite of it. It's the government that propped up GM when it was near bankruptcy, several times now. Had GM gone under Tesla would have been able to buy up their old factories and be making more electric cars, and do so cheaper. We'd have seen a lot of GM employees out of work for a while, which would no doubt be unfortunate, but in the long run we'd have seen them back at work making electric cars faster and cheaper.

If you want to see electric cars gain in the market then we don't need government to interfere, we need them to get out of the way. Same goes for things like wind, solar, and nuclear power.

If we cannot get government out of the way then we'll have to do like what Tesla is doing and get creative. One thing that also must be done is refuse government subsidies, or at least choose very carefully which ones are taken. Those subsidies come with handcuffs. If you want the freedom to win in the market then you have to know you can do so without a government safety net.