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Tesla Will Have to Ship Its Texas-Built Cars Out of State to Sell Back to Texans

26 points by belltaco 5y ago

Jiocus 5y ago
Can somebody shed some details on why manufacturers are prohibited from selling their vehicles directly to Texan consumers?
- MandieD 5y ago
  The Texas Auto Dealers Association has a remarkably strong grip on the Texas legislature.
- thrill 5y ago
  The idea of non-OEM dealerships supposedly was originally to increase competition by preventing OEMs from competing with dealers to run them out of business, though it was likely way oversold since 100 years ago there were far more OEMs than there are now. Today, when it's trivial to price compare online between different offerings from different OEMs, the entire structure of dealership laws exists to keep the large donations from those businesses flowing to politicians. I watched an online video of a Texas committee meeting with the public, and lobbyists, considering allowing such direct sales. The thing that jumped out to me was the political grandstanding about how dealerships donate "so much money to little league baseball teams, etc.", with no mention of their own significant reception of such monies, and with no discussion that removing the middleman of dealerships would mean less money extracted from the buyer to pay for all those shiny showrooms, meaning such money could be donated directly by consumers to their favorite organizations. But the most remarkable thing to me was watching the politicians greet the automobile dealers lobbyist with some pleasure by name when she got up to talk and mentioning how often they saw her.
- gutino 5y ago
  There was a time when a dealer would invest in a building, a deal with car companies and then, car companies would look at what dealers sell more cars, and establish in front of them a competing dealership run by the company itself, which resulted in a better price, bankrupting the independent dealer. But Tesla always sold their cars directly, there is no risk that they will compete with any third party dealership because they do not make deal with them. That is why that law does not make sense to be applied to Tesla. Its a shame Texas define themselves as one of the most free states and still have this law
- Finnucane 5y ago
  It’s not just Texas. Most states have similar laws. In the past, most dealers were local, so it was easy for state politicians to put their interests over Detroit’s.
sschueller 5y ago
Earlier discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27322568 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27322568
Finnucane 5y ago
I guess it’s a matter of priorities. The TX legislature seems to be moving with a quickness to get voter suppression bills passed.
- thegrim33 5y ago
  Yes, securing elections is important.
  - Finnucane 5y ago
    Yeah, that’s totally it.
  - tzs 5y ago
    Here are the things in the Texas changes that voter rights groups are upset over. Which of these actually have anything to do with securing elections? • Bans drive-through voting. • Cuts the allowed hours for early voting. Some counties had been having some early voting days with extended hours (including 24 hours in Harris county) to make it easier for shift workers who could not get off work during normal early voting hours to vote. • A recent version changed the formula for determining how many polling places to have on election day, but only for counties over a certain population limit. It would greatly reduce the number of places to vote in those counties (which, no doubt coincidentally, are counties that tend to vote Democratic and the reductions are largely in black and Latino areas of those counties). (I think this one was removed in the House, but was still on the table for the reconciliation between the House and Senate). They have failed to document any security issues related to any of these, or even offered any plausible hypothesis as to how they could cause security problems. The only thing that actually ties all the things they are changing together is that when done in Democratic counties they increase turnout, especially minority turnout. It's pretty hard to believe that this is just a coincidence.
- fudblah 5y ago
  I like this constant FUD. India a country of billion people and way less infra can get everyone a voter id, and so-called Hacker news whose theme is to present solutions constantly spreads did because it aligns with their political "beliefs".
sunstone 5y ago
That's gratitude for ya.

26 points by belltaco 5y ago

Can somebody shed some details on why manufacturers are prohibited from selling their vehicles directly to Texan consumers?

MandieD 5y ago
The Texas Auto Dealers Association has a remarkably strong grip on the Texas legislature.
thrill 5y ago
The idea of non-OEM dealerships supposedly was originally to increase competition by preventing OEMs from competing with dealers to run them out of business, though it was likely way oversold since 100 years ago there were far more OEMs than there are now. Today, when it's trivial to price compare online between different offerings from different OEMs, the entire structure of dealership laws exists to keep the large donations from those businesses flowing to politicians. I watched an online video of a Texas committee meeting with the public, and lobbyists, considering allowing such direct sales. The thing that jumped out to me was the political grandstanding about how dealerships donate "so much money to little league baseball teams, etc.", with no mention of their own significant reception of such monies, and with no discussion that removing the middleman of dealerships would mean less money extracted from the buyer to pay for all those shiny showrooms, meaning such money could be donated directly by consumers to their favorite organizations. But the most remarkable thing to me was watching the politicians greet the automobile dealers lobbyist with some pleasure by name when she got up to talk and mentioning how often they saw her.
gutino 5y ago
There was a time when a dealer would invest in a building, a deal with car companies and then, car companies would look at what dealers sell more cars, and establish in front of them a competing dealership run by the company itself, which resulted in a better price, bankrupting the independent dealer. But Tesla always sold their cars directly, there is no risk that they will compete with any third party dealership because they do not make deal with them. That is why that law does not make sense to be applied to Tesla. Its a shame Texas define themselves as one of the most free states and still have this law
Finnucane 5y ago
It’s not just Texas. Most states have similar laws. In the past, most dealers were local, so it was easy for state politicians to put their interests over Detroit’s.

sschueller 5y ago

Earlier discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27322568 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27322568

Finnucane 5y ago

I guess it’s a matter of priorities. The TX legislature seems to be moving with a quickness to get voter suppression bills passed.

thegrim33 5y ago
Yes, securing elections is important.
- Finnucane 5y ago
  Yeah, that’s totally it.
- tzs 5y ago
  Here are the things in the Texas changes that voter rights groups are upset over. Which of these actually have anything to do with securing elections? • Bans drive-through voting. • Cuts the allowed hours for early voting. Some counties had been having some early voting days with extended hours (including 24 hours in Harris county) to make it easier for shift workers who could not get off work during normal early voting hours to vote. • A recent version changed the formula for determining how many polling places to have on election day, but only for counties over a certain population limit. It would greatly reduce the number of places to vote in those counties (which, no doubt coincidentally, are counties that tend to vote Democratic and the reductions are largely in black and Latino areas of those counties). (I think this one was removed in the House, but was still on the table for the reconciliation between the House and Senate). They have failed to document any security issues related to any of these, or even offered any plausible hypothesis as to how they could cause security problems. The only thing that actually ties all the things they are changing together is that when done in Democratic counties they increase turnout, especially minority turnout. It's pretty hard to believe that this is just a coincidence.
fudblah 5y ago
I like this constant FUD. India a country of billion people and way less infra can get everyone a voter id, and so-called Hacker news whose theme is to present solutions constantly spreads did because it aligns with their political "beliefs".

sunstone 5y ago

That's gratitude for ya.