You could pretty much replace both instances of "car" with anything and this would be equally true.
Conversation I had years ago:
$boss: Please do $job using the new $overpricedpieceofcrap.
me: Sorry, $overpricedpieceofcrap can't do $job.
$boss: But $guy1 and $guy2 said it would do $job.
me: $boss, those guys are salesmen.
And suddenly $boss was enlightened.
You can fool some people some of the time but not all people all the time.
If people don't buy EV cars because dealerships anti-sell them, that's bad for car makers. Especially in Europe in China, where they have to sell a lot of EV cars or face gigantic fines.
If dealership continue straight up lying about EVs and people will indeed do an independent research, then they'll inevitable reach a conclusion that Tesla is a much better deal and will be amazed by Tesla's buying experience.
Ramping up EV sales to millions of units per year is a life-or-death situation for car makers in the next 10 years.
Dealerships sabotaging this effort will be a very significant problem.