Tesla can sell vehicles in Michigan under legal settlement

detroitnews.com

2 points·rmason··2 comments

A little background on why this was necessary. Being the automotive state the lobbyists for the auto dealers are one of the most powerful. These auto dealers thought Tesla selling cars direct in the state was an affront to their entire industry.

So they arranged for a bill to quietly be introduced in both houses of the state legislature and voted on at 2 am in the morning that banned Tesla from selling, repairing or delivering vehicles in the state of Michigan. This was greeted with a firestorm of opposition once Michigan's citizens found out.

At the time it wasn't likely that they'd sell many cars in the state but people were mad at the attempt to stifle competition and the feeling that it wasn't playing fair the way this was passed without public debate.

So if you want to buy a Tesla in Michigan you have to buy and pick up your car from Cleveland. If it's serviced you have to arrange to have it towed to Cleveland. As a result you don't see many Tesla's in the state and until recently few charging stations.

A little background on why this was necessary is that the law already existed for decades to stop GM/Ford/Chrysler from doing the same thing, which was a very real threat to their industry. The bill simply changes a word to keep Tesla from using the loophole of not having a franchise to begin with.

From the article, it sounds like Tesla simply decided to become a used car dealer in Michigan as another workaround. It's not a settlement because nothing else has changed. The law didn't apply to selling used cars.

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