Green energy group joins Tesla sales push
The perennial push to allow direct sales of electric vehicles like Tesla and the new Rivian truck should get some traction this year as a major green energy group has joined the effort.
Tesla Motors and traditional auto dealers have for several years now battled over whether vehicles can be sold directly to consumers, similar to how Apple computers operates its Apple stores.
The dealers, who are typically franchisees and agree to purchase and retail cars ranging from Chevrolets and Fords to BMWS, oppose that idea because it cuts them out of the equation. They have since 2014 successfully fended off bills in the state Legislature that would allow Tesla to operate a fleet of statewide direct-to-consumer stores. Tesla currently has only five stores in the New York City metropolitan area.
This year, however, New York’s burgeoning solar and wind energy industries are backing the effort for direct sales, since electric vehicles or EVS like Tesla, run on electricity rather than fossil fuels.
“The Legislature passed this super-ambitious climate law two years ago. Renewable energy is not that easy but there is a pathway to get there,” said Anne Reynolds, executive director of the Alliance for Clean Energy,
which represents solar, wind and other renewable energy producers.
“We really need some policies to jump-start deployment,” she explained, adding that her organization is supporting the push to let Tesla, as well as other electric vehicle makers including Rivian and Lucid, open their own directsales stores.
While Tesla is well-established as the nation’s leading all-electric plug-in car, Rivian is building electric pickup trucks which people can order online with June or July delivery dates.
Lucid Motors is also taking orders for their sedans. But with no direct stores or showrooms, consumers can’t easily test drive the Rivian or Lucid offerings.
Traditional auto dealers oppose the direct-sale model. By being in communities across the state, dealers say they fill the servicing and repair needs of consumers once a vehicle is sold. Many dealerships also are locally-owned small businesses, in contrast to big publicly traded firms like Tesla.
“They put the sweat equity and brick-and-mortar facilities that are there for the public,” Chris Neuber, president of the Eastern New York Coalition of Auto Dealers, said of his members.
“They are machines and they are going to break down,” he said of cars and trucks. “If you don’t have a facility where you can bring the vehicle, what do you do? Flatbed it back to the factory?”
Those pushing for more Tesla and other EV stores say they are willing to work with local auto dealers.
“I want to protect the franchises,” Albany Democratic Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy, who has co-sponsored the Tesla bills, said. The original push began in 2014 with a measure sponsored by Rochester Assemblyman Joe Morelle, who is now in Congress. He noted that people in western New York had to travel to the New York City area to see a Tesla showroom. That is still the case.
Fahy noted that New York state isn’t even in the top 10 nationally for sales of electric vehicles. If the state is to meet its ambitious greenhouse gas reduction goals, more consumers need to embrace plug-in cars and trucks. “We’ve got to up our game,” she said.
Fahy also supports provisions that would prevent other car makers from selling their EVS alongside and in competition with franchises.
For instance, the law they will likely disallow companies like Nissan Motors, which makes the Leaf EV, or Chevrolet with the Bolt EV, from selling outside of the franchise system.
And helping Tesla expand its offerings should only spur interest in electric vehicles in general — which should benefit legacy car makers like Chevrolet and Nissan.
“The dealers will do well to because there is more of a market for them,” said Rich Schrader, state legislative director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
“Transportation,” he added, is the biggest source of both pollution and greenhouse gas in New York state.”