Official: Tesla White House Petition Gets Tesla’s Support

July 3rd, 2013 by Tim Tyler

The Tesla White House petition to allow direct sales of electric cars to consumers has now officially gotten Tesla’s support.

Tesla Motors has been a game changer in the EV market, if not a role model for other EV makers and auto makers as a whole. One of the biggest challenges remaining, however, is overcoming the auto dealerships. These middle men want to keep Tesla from selling directly to the consumer. The auto dealerships see Tesla’s direct sales model as “unfair,” and in many states, the dealerships have lobbied politicians to stop the direct sales to consumers.

Tesla White House Petition Gets Tesla's Support

Image: Tesla Motor Event via Tesla

So, in essence, the auto dealers associations are saying that consumers, like you and me, shouldn’t have a choice on how we purchase a vehicle. This is absurd if you think about it. How many times have you left a dealership after purchasing a vehicle and felt like you didn’t get scammed — by the over-friendly car salesman who all of sudden is now your best friend. My guess is zero! Why shouldn’t we be able to by direct from companies like Tesla and skip the middle man?

On June 5, an anonymous Tesla fan created a petition to the White House that simply stated, “States should not be allowed to prevent Tesla Motors from selling cars directly to customers. The state legislators are trying to unfairly protect automobile dealers in their states from competition. Tesla is providing competition, which is good for consumers.”

Tesla (And CleanTechnica?) Boost Tesla White House Petition

This Tesla White House petition started out slow, but recently it received the backing from Tesla (and us here at CleanTechnica) and has just surpassed the 100,000 signatures needed to have the White House intervene on the matter. Tesla Motors sent out an email to draw support for the petition shortly after winning the battle in North Carolina. Here is the email Tesla sent out to its supporters:

As you may know, Tesla is under attack from a number of car dealer associations in various states who are challenging Tesla’s right to directly serve our customers at Tesla Stores and Service Centers.

Their efforts are protectionist in nature and infringe on the right of the consumer to choose how they purchase and service their vehicle.

An anonymous Tesla enthusiast created a White House petition to allow direct sales of cars to consumers in all states.

We want to thank the tens of thousands of fans who have voiced their support and have already signed the petition.

We want this petition to succeed. For that to happen, the petition needs 64,000 more signatures by next Friday, July 5, 2013.

Please act now and take a moment to register, sign and forward the petition today!

The petition had 94,000 signatures last night, and now has over 105,000, but it could use some more. If you have time show your support for direct sales to consumers, go and sign the petition today.

Keep up to date with all the hottest cleantech news by subscribing to our (free) cleantech newsletter, or keep an eye on sector-specific news by getting our (also free) solar energy newsletter, electric vehicle newsletter, or wind energy newsletter.

Tags: auto dealers, dealer fight, electric vehicle, Elon Musk, petitions, Tesla, Tesla Model S, Tesla White House petition, we the people petition, White House, White House petition Tesla, White House petitions

About the Author

Tim Tyler Holds an electronic's engineering degree and is working toward a second degree in IT/web development. Enjoy's renewable energy topic's and has a passion for the environment. Part time writer and web developer, full time husband and father.

D. Kennedy

YOU have a very one-sided view of the Telsa problem, Dealers have protection from the factories selling cars directly because:
A) A dealer distribution system was dictated by the factories themselves
B) Dealers have invested millions in facilities, inventory , training, equipment to SERVICE the customer– these investments are made relying in the present system. The factories have no made that investment. SO if a dealer has to compete directly with the factory for sales, he is at a huge disadvantage in overhead absorption– and therefore his investment, as a private citizen, is in jeopardy.
How would you like to see your income disappear along with your life-savings because someone wants to bypass a proven distribution system for their own gain? Why doesn’t Telsa simply appoint qualified dealers? Problem solved and sales continue.
- Bob_Wallace
  
  No one has invested anything in being a Tesla dealer.
  
  Those who have invested in a dealership for another car company can keep on dealing.
  
  Why doesn’t Tesla simply appoint qualified dealers? Why give some of the profit to people who have nothing to do with building the car? Why allow independent people potentially screw up your customer relationships?
  
  You seem to have no idea how much so many of us hate car dealers.
  
  You don’t appear to be aware of how obnoxious you’ve made the process of buying a car.
  
  I’d love to be able to buy my next vehicle from the manufacturer. At a fixed price. Then I could shop features and value and not have to struggle to get past the crap dealers put one thorough.
Pieter Siegers

I guess this is this only for US citizens? Or can non US citizens express their support too?