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The Missouri Automobile Dealers Association sued the Missouri Revenue Department and now a judge has ruled in their favor on part of their claims in Missouri.
Cole County Judge Daniel Green ruled that the Missouri Revenue Department violated state law when it gave the California-based manufacturer a license for a University City dealership in 2013 and a franchise dealer license for a Kansas City dealership in 2014. That allowed the automaker to sell cars directly to customers instead of through a dealership serving as a middleman.
[...] Tesla has faced similar roadblocks to selling its cars in several states with dealership laws similar to Missouri's. In some of those states, legislators have been looking at ways to tweak laws and let the company operate.
Previously: Tesla Direct Sales Blocked in New Jersey
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 02 2016, @07:05PM
So open a few satellite stores with no frills and only one car of each model. No service/parts dept, just a simple showroom. Could be done very cheap.
(Score: 2) by mmcmonster on Friday September 02 2016, @07:12PM
That's actually what's done in states where they are allowed to sell their cars.
I bought mine at the King of Prussia mall. The store was inside the mall, next to the Apple Store. In the store is a Model S and a few kiosks to see the website and a quite area in the back to order the car. The quiet area just has the same kiosk and you buy the car on the regular Tesla website with a purchase consultant at your side to make sure you don't choose a crazy set of options.
The Tesla maintenance centers are nowhere near the mall, by the way.
The problem is that the Tesla stores are company-owned, not a franchise. Because Tesla realized that a franchise model wouldn't work for electric cars unless the car was marked up dramatically. And since Tesla wanted the whole markup for themselves (to cover R&D costs and rollout of supercharger stations), no franchise.