Tesla is going to use the loophole of operating on tribal land to finally operate in Connecticut, a state that has been aggressively blocking Tesla from operating sales, delivery, and service centers for years.
There are a few states in the US that have laws prohibiting direct sales of electric vehicles to the public without going through third-party dealerships.
These bans come from old laws that were meant to protect car dealers from their own automakers supplying the vehicles.
The idea is that automakers couldn’t open a company-owned store next to a third-party dealer after they have made the investment to sell and service their cars. It would be unfair competition.
Now, however, car dealerships are using those old laws to prevent automakers that never had deals with third-party franchise dealers, like Tesla, from selling their vehicles to the public, even though it’s fair competition. Tesla has been fighting those laws in many states with some success, but there are still a few states that are abusing these laws.
Connecticut has been one of them.
Tesla has made several different efforts to support its customers in the state, but it has found strong opposition from the legislation and the Connecticut Automotive Retailers Association (CARA), which finances state legislators.
At one point, Tesla opened a “gallery” in Connecticut. In that gallery, Tesla claimed that it didn’t have sales operations and would only educate the public. The auto dealer association managed to have Tesla’s “gallery” shut down through an effort that involved sending “secret shoppers” to try to make Tesla staff talk about sales and shut down the gallery.
After the latest efforts to change the laws were shut down by state legislation, Tesla has decided to change its strategy.
In New Mexico, Tesla found an…