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Tesla Change of Plans

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From the Rod & Truck article. . .

ROADandTRACK.com -- Cover Story - It Takes a World to Build a Tesla (3/2008)

Because of the patchwork of new-car sales franchise laws from state to state, Tesla won't be able to own its distribution system and may choose to deal with franchised dealers or set up a network through a large dealer group similar to smart USA's arrangement with Roger Penske's United Automotive Group.

Yerg. I thought the whole point of owning their distribution system was to avoid falling within the purview of those laws.


Siry said initial plans to regionally limit Tesla sales and slowly roll out nationally have been abandoned, since customers for the first batch of cars are scattered all around the country.

If those plans have been abandoned, do I still have to pay the $8000 out-of-service-area surcharge?
 
Tony - Matt Delorenzo is drawing his own conclusion about the franchise laws and how they might limit Tesla from owning distribution. In fact, there are some states where we will be prevented from owning distribution unless the laws change (Texas, for example). Regarding his second statement, it's pretty obvious he was working off the assumption that our initial plan was to limit our sales regionally, which isn't the case. So I imagine he asked me if the sales were limited to a certain region and I said no - he then concludes the original plan was abandoned. Our plan is to own distribution and service to the greatest extent possible. If we have to partner with someone in difficult states then we will do so in a way that works for us.
 
By the way, I see some minor inaccuracies in that Car and Driver article.

For instance, they say "I got a taste of 1st gear in EP9 (Early Prototype 9) to self-validate their acceleration claims."
I think they were driving VP9, not EP9, and I think EP would stand for "Engineering Prototype" not "Early Prototype", but whatever.