Legislation to Lift Ban on Tesla Sales in Maryland - Hearing on Feb. 19, 2015

Nice article. Good photos to go along with the story.

I'm going to do my best to make it to the hearing.

Bob

I'm a Virginia resident but will try to make the hearing. Anyone else from NoVA want to caravan?

I'd be more motivated if I'd had a problem buying a Tesla in Maryland. I would perhaps show up, or write some letters, if test drives were prohibited here, but the current situation does not significantly interfere with sales in MD, and I would think Tesla could better focus on states where test drives are prohibited.

This is by no stretch of the imagination a slam dunk and I plan to be in Annapolis on Thursday to support Tesla Motors. While we may be able to take test drives and order cars online there's still room for improvement. At best the current situation is confusing for consumers and frustrating for Tesla employees. Please reach out to your representatives and join us in Annapolis on Thursday to show your support for this bill and help pave the way for better car sales in Maryland.

Being in Texas, I am envious of the ability to take a test drive. I went to the recent event they had in Austin. I agree it is important for as many to show up as can and show support for Tesla and not rest on the status quo. The auto dealers will not stop continuing trying rollback any gains, or sneak in some last minute late night bill to explicitly outlaw Tesla selling cars. The only way around it is to continue to show up and support until Tesla is "explicitly" legal under the state law.

Wow, that's painful to listen to. The GM guy is so slimy - and not ashamed of lying ("EV 1 didn't fail because of us, it failed because of the market"). If I get him right, his argument boils down to: we feel forced to go through dealers, so Tesla should be forced to go through dealers, too.

As a non-US resident can I ask why on earth (and how??) any state has banned tesla from selling their product?!? Sounds more like China than USA.. Odd?

Over the years car dealerships have been able to encourage legislation that protects their interests and precludes car manufacturers from selling directly to the public. They have enacted a monopoly on the way cars are sold.

That is actually crazy.

Worse is that they try to portray serving their self interests as somehow serving and protecting the public.

aarontayto said:

That is actually crazy.

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It didn't start out crazy. There was a legitimate intended purpose, but that was a long time ago. The world has changed, but sometimes the rules/legislation/laws, or people don't keep up with those changes and sometimes people are self-serving. The dealerships have it pretty good, there's no reason for them to want to rethink and restructure their business model. It's an interesting time we are living in.

Krugerrand said:

It didn't start out crazy. There was a legitimate intended purpose, but that was a long time ago. The world has changed, but sometimes the rules/legislation/laws, or people don't keep up with those changes and sometimes people are self-serving. The dealerships have it pretty good, there's no reason for them to want to rethink and restructure their business model. It's an interesting time we are living in.

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It's a perfect example of why legislatures should stop passing so many laws. There are ALWAYS unintended consequences of any law. And times and situations do change. In this particular case, it was a simple business dispute between one business (car dealers) and another (car manufacturers). The manufacturers didn't like the way dealers were selling their product and wanted to experiment with selling direct.

The dealers bribed, I mean sought redress, from legislatures, and laws were passed to prevent direct sales. Those laws should never have been passed in the first place. The dealers could have fought a PR war, they could have cleaned up their act, they even could have negotiated a clean exit from their business with the manufacturers. They had many options, but they chose to bribe instead.

Sad that the political culture is such that passing laws like this are considered OK and normal.

aarontayto said:

As a non-US resident can I ask why on earth (and how??) any state has banned tesla from selling their product?!? Sounds more like China than USA.. Odd?

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To build on Kruggerand's reply, states may regulate commerce to ensure the public health and safety. For example, Massachusetts requires that new car dealers have service centers, trained staff, and so forth to ensure that cars sold can also be serviced.

Dealers managed to get restrictions on manufacturers' direct sales on two (specious) grounds:

First, that manufacturers may go out of business, while the dealership will still be around to service cars. Yes, this is a bizarre a scenario as it sounds (where do they get parts?), but it's also patently not true when one looks at the fallout from Fisker.

Second, that manufacturers won't look out for consumers' interests, but independent dealers will. Again, this is an odd argument; what manufacturer wants customers to have a bad experience with their product? Moreover, notice that the GM dealers were not advocates for their customers in the ignition-switch debacle. It took direct consumer action to get GM to do something, and the dealers have been slow to do the needed retrofits.

In fact, these 'reasons' are mere excuses to reduce competition in the car dealer business and to protect established franchises. Car dealers are generous contributors to political campaigns, employ a lot of people in sales and service, and a large fraction of state's sales tax revenues flow through their accounts. The dealers like to raise the canard that all these jobs and taxes will disappear if the dealers aren't protected. Obviously, no: Tesla hires staff for its galleries, stores, and service centers, and the state receives the sales tax for every Tesla vehicle sold. What's the one thing Tesla doesn't do? Contribute money to state politicians' campaigns.

SebastianR said:

Wow, that's painful to listen to. The GM guy is so slimy - and not ashamed of lying ("EV 1 didn't fail because of us, it failed because of the market"). If I get him right, his argument boils down to: we feel forced to go through dealers, so Tesla should be forced to go through dealers, too.

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Just another lying lawyer, and I regret saying that as my son is an attorney (actually an Assistant Attorney General in Maryland and starting next month a Supreme Court Fellow -- proud father) But some attorneys I regret to note will say anything, including lies, to protect the self-interest of clients. Do they teach ethics in law schools? Apparently very little, or if they do, it's in one ear and out the other for far too many law students.

I still think it's very crazy.

We have a manufacturer - independent dealer system here. No need for any laws it just works!