Legal Settlement Allows Tesla To Sell Cars In Michigan (Finally)
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A new legal settlement ruled in favor of Tesla in Michigan. Tesla can now sell and service its vehicles in the state of Michigan, according to an anonymous source close to the matter. This agreement will enable Tesla buyers to pick up any new Tesla vehicles they buy within Michigan instead of having to leave the state to do so. Tesla can now make deliveries to its customers living in Michigan. But the deal is a bit complicated.
Tesla can sell vehicles in MI under legal settlement | https://t.co/gGopsByia3 https://t.co/oLvF00r6Zk
— JPR007 (@jpr007) January 21, 2020
Up until this ruling, the thousands of Teslas that are on Michigan roads had to be sold and serviced out of Ohio or other nearby states.
Unfortunately, for those living in Michigan and wanting to buy a Tesla, they still have to have their vehicles titled in another state and then transferred to Michigan (a strange requirement). Also, the vehicles sold and serviced in Michigan will have to be sold and serviced by a Tesla subsidiary according to this agreement, which is not yet public but was seemingly leaked to news reporters in the Detroit area.
As of right now, Tesla has a gallery at a Detroit shopping mall, but employees there are, by law, not allowed to even talk about pricing or lease terms and cannot complete any sales to customers.
Imagine wanting to buy something completely legal — and even very popular nationwide and around the globe — but finding out the state you live in refuses to allow that company to deliver the product to you and that you have to go out of the state to get it. It sounds completely insane, but several states have this silly law barring Tesla from selling and servicing its vehicles. Is this America? You should be able to buy a vehicle if you want to even if it’s different from all the others and the company is doing things differently from the “old way.”
The “old way” means selling cars through a dealer, not directly. Tesla realized many years ago that would not be a smart or effective way to sell electric vehicles since they were such a different product and dealerships make most of their profits from servicing vehicles in ways electric vehicles will never need.
The reason several states refuse to let Tesla sell directly is mostly due to out-of-date laws and the franchise auto dealerships knowing they’ll lose money if Tesla can sell directly to customers (and “steal” their customers from them). Money, in my opinion, shouldn’t come before the rights of the American people. If I want to buy a car — online or in a store — and have it delivered to me, I should be able to have that done. I shouldn’t have that right taken away from me because of greedy dealers who want me to pay extra to go through them.
Hopefully other states still lagging on this matter will see how this legal settlement in Tesla’s favor is also in favor of the citizens and will follow suit.
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