Georgia dealers sue to limit Tesla sales

The auto dealers are at it again, this time GA

It seems like the auto dealers are trying to get Tesla's dealership license revoked in Georgia. They are petitioning regulators saying Tesla does not qualify for the exemption they got for manufacturers selling 150 custom vehicles or less.

Followed by their usual demands that Tesla submit to their franchise model.

Tesla Fight Erupts in Georgia as Dealers Seek Sales Ban - Bloomberg

Georgia dealers seek to slam brakes on Tesla Motors' Atlanta expansion - Atlanta Business Chronicle

Here we go again... GADA is pushing back against Tesla since they apparently have exceeded their sale limit of 150 cars and the bill to allow them to sell 1500 a year didn't get passed. My question is, how are they counting store sales? Because a registration in the state doesn't mean they sold it from the store. It seems like GA would have more than 180 sales in the state over the past 9 months...

For a little more context:
Georgia dealers seek to slam brakes on Tesla Motors' Atlanta expansion - Atlanta Business Chronicle

Fools.

More good publicity for Tesla/bad publicity for auto dealers. It makes consumers aware there is an alternative to the franchised dealer model.
The comments on the Atlanta Business Chronicle article are all pro-Tesla so far.

We will be fighting this, believe me. What do you think I can do to help?

I am not a Tesla owner but I will do everything I can to fight this. GA is pretty EV friendly state (visit Northern Atlanta/Roswell/Marietta/Alpharetta sometime and you'll see what I mean). Question for those who have lobbied their own states when this crap went down, what can I do to help exactly?

Hmmm...well options I can think of are:


1 - making a counter petition for the same place the auto dealers are, the Georgia Department of Revenue


2 - petitioning state senate/assembly to pass a bill clarifying the law


3 - petitioning the governor


Usually, what ends up happening is a thread is opened up in the local forum such as:


Southeast


And an effort is coordinated by those in the state. It might also be important to note what message to go with depending on who you are dealing with, In the case of Georgia Department of Revenue, they probably could care less about free market because regulating is their job. They are the DMV. So probably a case has to be made why Tesla is not influenced by that law since Tesla has no franchises.


If you want to take this to the governor/legislature, if they are EV friendly, probably stress the importance of this to EVs.




I think the dealers are aiming specifically at the DMV now due to the success in NJ.

Here is the law I think:

http://www.gada.com/index.php?module=FileShare&func=download&file_id=97

tigerade said:

I am not a Tesla owner but I will do everything I can to fight this. GA is pretty EV friendly state (visit Northern Atlanta/Roswell/Marietta/Alpharetta sometime and you'll see what I mean). Question for those who have lobbied their own states when this crap went down, what can I do to help exactly?

Click to expand...

Write your state rep and senator. Attend the public hearing when/if they try introduce a bill. A bill will have to go through a committee vote first, which requires public comment. The committee will be a formality, but it has to allow public comment. Even though the bill will inevitably make it out of committee, bring as many people to publicly speak out against the bill.

And then when it moves out of committee, Write more letters and emails to every state rep and senator. You may Even create a form letter that states the position why a direct sales model is beneficial to Georgia's economy and the citizens of Georgia (Georgians?). Have everyone you know send that letter and/or contact their state rep and senator. The best thing you can do is educate the legislators why Tesla is good for Georgia.

Chickenlittle said:

Interesting, title of thread I started changed without any indication of change or why. I think their should be indication of editing text (or titles) above someone's signature. I acknowledge moderators right to do so but would also expect them to indicate it was done. It actually changed the meaning of the post.

Click to expand...

I didn't change your thread title, but I can see that a moderator merged two threads that were on the same topic. It may be that the title from one thread became the overall title for the merged threads. Typically we only edit titles if there is a misspelling in the title or if clarification is required (geographic area, deliberately vague/clickbait, etc). Otherwise we really do have enough to do without randomly changing stuff. Title is most likely the result of merging threads on the same topic is all.

michiganmodels said:

Write your state rep and senator. Attend the public hearing when/if they try introduce a bill. A bill will have to go through a committee vote first, which requires public comment. The committee will be a formality, but it has to allow public comment. Even though the bill will inevitably make it out of committee, bring as many people to publicly speak out against the bill.

And then when it moves out of committee, Write more letters and emails to every state rep and senator. You may Even create a form letter that states the position why a direct sales model is beneficial to Georgia's economy and the citizens of Georgia (Georgians?). Have everyone you know send that letter and/or contact their state rep and senator. The best thing you can do is educate the legislators why Tesla is good for Georgia.

Click to expand...

As I mentioned in the other thread. This is not a bill, they are learning. And what they learned so far is that bills don't go to their favor due to public outcry. So they are circumventing that and going with what worked, the same thing as in NJ. They are trying to have the DMV take away Tesla's license without a public vote.

evme said:

As I mentioned in the other thread. This is not a bill, they are learning. And what they learned so far is that bills don't go to their favor due to public outcry. So they are circumventing that and going with what worked, the same thing as in NJ. They are trying to have the DMV take away Tesla's license without a public vote.

Click to expand...

I am not sure how the DMV leadership works in GA, but in NJ there is a committee appointed by the sitting Gov.

So they are political hacks dependent on the Gov and the incumbent party for their next plumb job.

It was Christie's hidden hand at the behest of lobbying by NJ dealers that moved the NJ DMV leadership committee to reinterpret the NJ statues to put Tesla in violation.

And it was political pressure that forced a compromise between Tesla and the NJ dealers in the legislature.

In states where politically isolated judges and civil servants have ruled on the matter they have almost uniformly made judgments in favor of Tesla.

(Merge w/other GA threads) Tesla Fight Erupts in Georgia as Dealers Seek Sales Ban

Dealerships are asking for a Tesla prohibition.

Tesla Fight Erupts in Georgia as Dealers Seek Sales Ban - Bloomberg
Georgia dealers seek to slam brakes on Tesla Motors' Atlanta expansion - Atlanta Business Chronicle

It looks like we need to deliver that groundswell of support.

Already being discussed:

Tesla Motors section: The-auto-dealers-are-at-it-again-this-time-GA

Investor section: Georgia-dealers-sue-to-limit-Tesla-sales

I wonder if a better approach would be to question the auto dealers themselves. I like to ask a dealer if they support the actions of the GADA to restrain Tesla in this state. Then I'd ask if they believe that consumers in this state should have the right to buy the car of their choice. If they answer yes to both, then I would explain that I reject their hypocrisy and will vow never to do business with them in the future. When auto dealers realize that consumers are really turned off by these political stunts, will they back off?

The next level is to protest at dealerships that support the GADA.

Consider an advertising campaign (Internet Video is very cost effective), proffering the questions:

Should the citizens of Georgia have an American right to freedom of commerce?

Should the Georgia Automotive Dealers Association decide your legal rights?

Should the Georgia Automotive Dealers Association decide where and how you will spend you money?

jhm said:

I wonder if a better approach would be to question the auto dealers themselves.

Click to expand...

While showing the car I've had dealer personnel come to me an explain what a bad thing it is because of the loss of tax revenue. I always reply, "What loss?" Sales tax gets paid in the county your register in. Then they generally talk about tax from service revenue. The answer here is, "Your cars must be poorly designed if they need that much service". The dealers are 100% behind the NADA and their state chapters because they know they can't survive long term if the laws were to change.

jerry33 said:

While showing the car I've had dealer personnel come to me an explain what a bad thing it is because of the loss of tax revenue. I always reply, "What loss?" Sales tax gets paid in the county your register in. Then they generally talk about tax from service revenue. The answer here is, "Your cars must be poorly designed if they need that much service". The dealers are 100% behind the NADA and their state chapters because they know they can't survive long term if the laws were to change.

Click to expand...

And Tesla's are far from service free. So that doesn't make any sense wherever you have your vehicle serviced they would pay taxes to that county, city, state... So if they are still against it then they know our cars require less service overall... So I would agree.