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Tesla never had dealerships, but GM and all the others did. These laws do exist, as you say, to prevent the manufacturer from cutting out the dealer after benefiting from the service the dealer provides to its customers, but Tesla never had any dealerships they could unfairly circumvent.

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Yes this is the main point. Car dealerships were understandably nervous that the major automakers could suddenly implement a direct model in their state/location. They could decimate them overnight due to advantageous economics of selling directly to the public. The problem here is that Tesla never had a dealership network that it asked to go all in on their product only to come in behind them later and sell direct. What car dealerships really worry about is that if Tesla proves this to be the better sales model for 2013+ the big guys will want/need to copy this approach. That would be disastrous for them.

Those laws exist because dealers were able to get them passed, not because there is any sound reasoning behind them. Without them, the dealers would not exist today. They're not going to let tesla ruin that without a big fight.

I hope Tesla wins. I hate these made-by-middlemen-to-protect-middlemen laws. Recently in Turkey, there was a huge fight between banks and goldsmiths because banks decided to trade gold as well at better rates than offered by goldsmiths. Lots of fight later, banks are now restricted to accept and trade in 2-3 gold types. But I hope the industry is going to open up.

It is the middleman's job to remain relevant in changing economies, not resist changes so that relevancy is guaranteed. I think competition laws should be encouraged.

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