John Bogna
Houston, Texas, boasts a showroom where you can go look at one of Elon Musk’s famous electric Tesla vehicles, talk to an employee about purchasing and even sit in one.
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But if you go to actually buy one, things get a little more complicated:
“I actually had to go online, configure it, and order it sight unseen…” Austin Realtor Matt Holm said in an interview. Â “Then have it shipped out from California on a third party truck, to a third party location.”
The convoluted process exists because Texas is one of five states to ban Tesla from selling its cars straight to customers from its showrooms.
Tesla doesn’t have a network of dealerships, instead relying on its showrooms to move its vehicles.
“It makes no sense that an American-manufactured vehicle would be so challenging to get,” Holm added.
The Tesla sales ban is an extension of a group of laws prohibiting purchases of vehicles directly from car manufacturers, which lawmakers say cuts out the middleman at dealerships and, by extension, denies them cash they could make from selling a car.
In Texas alone, 1,300 dealerships employ about 100,000 people.
Tesla spent over $1 million lobbying to change this in recent years, but organizations like the Texas Auto Dealer’s Association, with considerable political clout and resources, continue to oppose lifting the ban.
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