Texas Lawmakers Want To Stop Tesla From Fixing Its Own Cars (electrek.co)

In Texas the local car dealer lobby has blocked Tesla from selling its cars directly to customers. They're using old laws meant to prevent car manufacturers from competing with their own local dealers -- but Tesla never had any local dealers!

And according to Electrek, it gets worse... Despite this issue, Texans have bought thousands of Tesla vehicles, which the automaker delivers from other states to comply with the law. Tesla has been able to service those vehicles through its own service centers, which are not subject to those same direct-sale rules, but now dealers are even going after Tesla's right to service its cars.
Quartz offers some additional coverage: At issue is a battle over money. Car dealers derive much of their revenue from selling and (especially) servicing vehicles. Tesla's direct-to-customer sales and service stations are a threat to that business model since they cut dealers out of the transaction.

Comments

Ah yes. Good 'ol Texas

[quonset]

The state which prides itself on getting big government out people lives until the people need the power of big government to kill competition.

Re:Ah yes. Good 'ol Texas

[TomR teh Pirate]

And it's not just that the legislature of big oil is trying to pick the automotive winner, but they are doing it on the backs of Texans' rights to choose for themselves what car they can buy.

Re:Ah yes. Good 'ol Texas

[ShanghaiBill]

Texas will turn purple by 2028 at the latest and we'll finally be able to put all of this nonsense behind us once

This is not a Red vs. Blue issue. Plenty of Blue states have anti-competitive protection for dealers.

Deep blue Connecticut and New York protect dealers, as do crimson red Utah and Oklahoma.

Cronyism, corruption, and rent-seeking are nonpartisan.

Re:Ah yes. Good 'ol Texas

[Registered Coward v2]

The state which prides itself on getting big government out people lives until the people need the power of big government to kill competition.

Let me explain: Big government doing something I don’t like or stopping me from doing something: Big government bad; doing something that benefits me or stops someone else from doing something I disapprove of: Big government good

Re:Right to repair?

[Gavagai80]

Right to repair works both ways. Every mechanic should have a right to work on Teslas if they so choose, but Tesla should also have a right to service their own cars if they choose.

My car mechanic

[DogDude]

My mechanic is planning on specializing in vintage cars as the electrics start happening. He expects it'll be a pretty quick switch. He says that there will be very little to fix outside of suspensions, and occasionally brakes. Even brakes won't need as much fixing, because electric cars will probably all use regenerative braking. Electric motors, of course, last a very, very, very long time, and generally, they're so cheap that it makes more sense to replace a motor than taking the time to re-wind the coils.

Re:Mobile repair seems like an awesome service to

[crow]

Nope. I had mobile repair replace my parking brakes (warranty issue) and rotate my tires. He did it in my garage with a jack. The whole point of mobile service is that while it takes the repair guy a bit more time (both in driving and in working), it saves them a ton of overhead in buildings, so it ends up being cheaper.

Re:Texas us right in this...

[EnsilZah]

Ah-bullshit.
https://service.teslamotors.co...

Re:Mobile repair seems like an awesome service to

[mspohr]

Modern ICE cars do need oil changes and have finicky emission systems which require regular maintenance.
Teslas really don't need any routine maintenance. Even brakes seem to last forever because of regen.

The early production of the door handle retraction mechanism had a weak pivot gear which broke. The replacement is much stronger. Same with the early "drivetrain failure" which was just a "milling sound" due to lack of lubrication in early production models. The whole drivetrain can be dropped by removing about 4 bolts so the easiest thing to do was exchange them and send them back to the factory for rebuild. My car (a 2015) fortunately hasn't had that problem.

The reality is that the cars are very reliable and people have driven them hundreds of thousands of miles with very little maintenance or repair. Even the batteries are proving to be be solid with less than 10% degradation over 100,000 miles so they should last a lot longer than an ICE car.
Tesla has loosened up their policy on parts so anyone can buy any replacement part and shop manuals and of course there are salvage parts available so anyone could open up a Tesla repair shop. Problem is that they don't need much in the way of maintenance and repair so not much of a market.