Tesla constructs 1st store on tribal land, dodges state laws
NAMBE, N.M. — Carmaker Tesla has opened a store and repair shop on Native American land for the first time, marking a new approach to its yearslong fight to sell cars directly to consumers and cut car dealerships out of the process.
The white-walled, silver-lettered Tesla store, which opened this month, sits in Nambe Pueblo, north of Santa Fe, on tribal land that’s not subject to state laws.
The electric car company can only sell and service its vehicles freely in about a dozen states, while it faces restrictions in others. Some, like New Mexico, ban Tesla from offering sales or repairs without going through a dealership. In January, the company struck a deal with Michigan to resolve a 2016 lawsuit, a victory that allowed it to sell in the backyard of the nation’s largest carmakers.
Supporters of Tesla say the shop in New Mexico marks the first time the company has partnered with a tribe to get around laws, though the idea has been in the works for years.
From Oklahoma to Connecticut and other states, consumers can’t buy Teslas because the company won’t partner with dealerships and hasn’t been successful in winning over the courts or lawmakers to allow its direct sales model.
“These states have lots of sovereign Native American nations in them that could be interested in Tesla,” said Brian Dear, president of the Tesla Owners Club of New Mexico. “I don’t believe at all that this will be the last.”
Supporters say dealership laws protect middleclass jobs and force dealerships to compete, lowering prices. Critics say people can get information online and direct sales would lower costs.
New Mexico, Alabama, and Louisiana have the strictest bans, barring Tesla from both operating dealerships and repair shops. That makes repairing a Tesla more expensive and more of a hassle. Owners have to get their cars serviced in neighboring states or through traveling Tesla technicians who fix problems with what they have in a van.
The New Mexico Tesla shop, built on the site of a former casino, is nestled between two gas stations along a highway about an hour and a half north of Albuquerque, where most of the state’s Tesla owners live, Dear said.
While sales are prohibited in neighboring Texas — where the company plans to make its pickup trucks next year — repair shops are allowed. New Mexico Tesla owners have been traveling to El Paso, Texas for repairs.
To buy a Tesla, they have to drive hours to pick them up or pay to have them shipped.
Tribal officials who brokered the deal say it lines up with business interests and cultural values like caring for the environment.
The tribe “has the responsibility to the land where we have resided for over 1,000 years,” said Carlos Vigil, president of the Nambe Pueblo Development Corporation, calling Tesla’s service center “a renewable business that lines up with our belief system.”