The New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission has recently voted to prohibit the car manufacturer Tesla from selling their cars directly to customers. They have become one of many states who have also banned Tesla’s direct sales platform recently. The reason that they are not allowing it is because of “consumer protection”, but critics think otherwise.
Tesla is a car company founded by billionaire, Elon Musk, and they have been making waves from the very start. They came out with an all electric luxury sedan, called the Model S that has been raved about since it’s release. It even won the Motor Trend Car of The Year award last year. The Model S is not the only revolutionary thing that Tesla is doing though. The way that they sell their cars is also revolutionary, and it has landed them in some hot water with state lawmakers.
Tesla wants to sell their cars directly to the customers. This means that instead of going to a local dealership to look at, and negotiate on a car that is on the lot, Tesla customers deal directly with Tesla itself and order the car they want. Lawmakers are saying that this is bad for local car dealers and that it would create a monopoly, but Tesla and it’s supporters don’t share that view.
Tesla believes that it would not be hurting local dealers at all. There are currently no local Tesla dealerships so there is no one to have a monopoly over, and the other car makers like Ford and Chevy, do not have an all electric luxury car like the Tesla so there is no competition there. I believe that Tesla are right to fight the lawmakers on this. They shouldn’t be prohibited from selling their cars just because the big automakers do things a different way.