ABC News Nightline August 22 2013
(it is the comments at the bottom that are interesting)
When you’re about to compete in your first electric car race, brace yourself for the sound … of silence. But don’t let those quiet engines fool you because these days, quiet means fast.
With every major car company looking for a share of the booming electric car market, the competition to go faster and further for cheaper has become an all-out war. Detroit, Japan and Germany are all represented, but right now, an unlikely newcomer is getting top honors: the Tesla Model S.
It’s being hailed as a game changer. It’s the first electric car to win Motor Trend’s Car of the Year; an unprecedented 99 out of 100 rating from Consumer Reports; and now, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, it’s also the safest car ever.
But if the Model S really is the car of the future, then why has Texas banned its sales in the state and why are lawmakers in several other states trying to do the same?
To answer that, first you need to meet Tesla CEO Elon Musk. He plans on opening 50 new Tesla stores in the next year. And taking a page from the Apple playbook, Musk is selling his product directly to consumers. No hard sell. No commission for employees. And uniform prices at every store.
“We actually train people to educate,” explained Musk. “We always wanted to be a really low-key kind of friendly environment, where we're not constantly trying to close deals.”
That’s a dig at the traditional middlemen in the car-buying experience: the car dealers. Musk wants to cut them out completely. He thinks customers don’t like them and that dealers are prejudiced against electric cars.
“It takes them at least twice as much effort to sell someone an electric car and to educate them as to why an electric car is good,” said Musk. “And so if we were to go through the traditional dealer path, the result would be a disaster.”
So Musk is declaring war on car dealers, but car dealers are also declaring war on Musk. They have already successfully booted him out of Texas and there is anti-Tesla legislation pending in North Carolina, Colorado and Virginia.
“This happens all the time,” said Bill Wolters, the president of the Texas Automobile Dealers Association. “Someone wants an exception to the franchise laws. If we made an exception for everybody that showed up in the legislature, before long the integrity of the entire franchise system is in peril.”
The outcome of the battle remains to be seen, but it’s just one of many standing in Musk’s way of the Model S becoming a mainstream success. For all the hype, only 20,000 have been sold.
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So if you live in Texas, can you go to Oklahoma and buy one?
What happened to FREE enterprize? I don't think the Government has a right to keep someone from selling a legal product.
I think our legislature needs to rethink any law that needlessy impedes businesses just because they operate under a different business model. Laws that require operating under a franchise system are unncessary impedements to a well-functioning marketplace.
Passing laws against competition. Doesn't that like go against everything the American market stands for?
"before long the integrity of the entire franchise system is in peril.”
If it doesn't work then maybe it SHOULD die. Just sayin'.
Franchise laws should get the boot, Just rips people off for more cash.
Oh my goodness!!! A threat to the franchise system?! Oh the horror! It's a good product by an entrepreneur. The hypocracy of it all should be the story.
I'm with Tesla on this one. The car sales and service industry is largely filled with #$%$ who don't care about anything but forcing the consumer to pay whatever outrageous prices they want, and whine and cry like little entitled babies when the free market prevents their parasitic attachment to a deal. Next time you go to a dealer look at what they charge you for parts, then go see what the same parts would cost you at a parts store. You'll likely see the parts marked up two to three times over what you would pay retail, and they get them for a lot cheaper than that. Greedy #$%$bags is all they are.
Dealerships add too much to the price and rarely do you get a good dealer !
Before long you blood sucking car dealers would be out of a job or you might actually have to give a dang about your customers.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"before long the integrity of the entire franchise system is in peril"
It should be. The franchise system does not benifit the consumer.
It is more like Government endorsed monopoly.
So Texas and a few other states can block interstate commerce because they want to throw a hissy fit over franchise laws. I think this is unconstitutional. You cannot block one car business from selling just because you don't like their business model or your pals in the dealership business would have to compete differently.
As a Texan, I find it absurd to cut out any person or company trying to make a living with a good product (that has tested safe and road-worthy) and an honest effort to sell that product to the consumers. I thought free enterprise and open markets was a good thing!
The biggest obstacle to it "becoming mainstream" is price, but then, that isn't the point. It's a pricey machine for early-adopters with the cash to own one. They're paying for the technology development that will get the price down. One thing Musk has obviously done (again), is prove that a lot of what's "impossible" is that way only because entrenched corporations don't want to be pushed out of their comfort zone. Musk didn't design that car himself, and the engineers who did it could've done it for Ford or GM if they'd been given the freedom and the motivation to do so. Musk is doing what other successful people have done many times before. He's surrounding himself with smart people and giving them the means to break the mold.
If I had the money I would buy a Tesla S. The Dealerships do run up the price of items everyone knows this fact. They like to say this is the no hassle price, but it has always been to there benefit. Why stop a company who can help lower the demand we have on oil? Oh it is not good business for the rest of the car business.
It always comes back to Greed.....That is the true enemy that the US is now fighting and the middle and under class is losing big time.
The car salesman are terrified. They see their jobs going down the tube. Oh my God, an honest dealership with out marking up all those BS things you don't want or need. How could a salesman ever survive without conning the customers ?
Oil companies don't want an all electric car, period !!!
Franchise laws. The usual corruption. Think you're free? Seems an owner should be able to sell his product wherever and however he wants. Not in texsuks. Sounds like communism to me.
Because Texas just gives lip service to Capitalism they don't really believe in it.
These car dealers are like the mafia. They are very unethical. False advertising, high pressure selling, up selling, bullying, etc. They collude together to add fees like documentation fees, transportation fees etc. Unfortunately they get all these corrupt politicians in their back pockets. I think Tesla may be too expensive for me, but I may buy one to #$%$ these car dealers. Man, I really hate the car dealers and these politicians. I would rather trust the mafia than these crooks. Elon for president, USA needs a change.