Excellent comment. Worth sharing for all to see. Pasted below:
With all due respect to the author, he's completely misread the law & Tesla's position. The law provides that IF it is not in the public's best interest to use an independent dealership, Tesla may sell direct. The issue is if there is a dealership who can act in the best interest of the public. I say no, there is not.
-- Price of cars purchased through independent dealerships are higher - An in-depth analysis by Goldman Sachs concluded that selling cars directly to consumers would knock nearly 10 percent off the cost of an average car–a savings of $2,225 for a $26,000 vehicle.
(Newt Gingrich:
Christie and Tesla)
-- With a few exceptions, dealerships that also sell traditional gas-powered cars have been shown to ignore the electric vehicles from their manufacturer. There are many stories of EV owners having to demand to be shown an EV. Why? Because the dealership doesn't get service revenue from a car that doesn't need oil changed and spark plugs switched.
FTC has weighed in on this whole 'dealership vs. sell direct' kerfuffle and concluded that the consumer is perfectly capable of choosing the business model that works best.
Who decides how consumers should shop? | Federal Trade Commission
VA dealerships have enjoyed the umbrella of protectionist laws because that is what they chose & lobbied to get. But the intention was never to stifle free trade.
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18 minutes ago
Bonnie Norman, Loomis, CA
Regarding the author's assertion that Tesla agreed to only open one store in Virginia... that's 100% untrue.
I filed for a copy of that settlement agreement under VA's Open Records law. The settlement specifically calls out that it only applies to the store under discussion and does not have anything to do with future properties that Tesla may choose to open.