A long, long way.

In North Carolina, a new law passed by the state Senate would apparently make it illegal for Tesla to e-mail its customers.

In other words, if you're a North Carolina resident who has a question about Tesla, the new law may prohibit Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] from responding to your question via e-mail.

The specific wording of the law bars automakers from "using a computer or other communications facilities, hardware, or equipment" to sell or lease a car to anyone in North Carolina.

Even telephones?

This seemed rather remarkable to us, so we asked Tesla communications director Shanna Hendriks if we were understanding the law correctly.

"That is not an unreasonable interpretation of the law," she said.

"Any communications device--including a telephone--could be captured as conducting sales activity, and [its use] prohibited except by franchise dealers."

Hendriks concluded: "As you can see, they are trying to tie our hands as much as possible to ‘protect the customer'."

Tesla: "unfair competition"?

Diarmuid O'Connell, vice president of business development for Tesla, told ABC News the bill was a "fundamentally protectionist effort to lock down the market and force us to sell through the middle man."

The bill must be sent to the state's House of Representatives by today, and would have to be passed by that body and signed into law by governor Pat McCrory to take effect.

The law is an effort to prevent what the North Carolina Automobile Dealers' Association terms "unfair competition" by Tesla, which so far has sold about 10,000 cars globally since 2008.

The bill would modify a law passed in the mid-1970s to protect existing franchised dealerships against competition from dealers owned by car companies, which could be given preferential treatment by the makers.

No franchisees to be protected

Tesla, however, has no franchised dealers. It currently displays its electric cars at company-owned showrooms, and completes sales online directly with buyers.

The NC dealer group wants to force Tesla to sell only through franchised dealers, who Tesla believes cannot adequately advocate for electric cars because they now derive all their profits from selling and servicing gasoline cars--a technology Tesla competes against.

The case that such laws are in the car buyer's own best interests--and the best way to protect customers--can be seen in comments by Tim Jackson of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association.

Some supporters

Tesla and its products are not without supporters in the Tar Heel State. There are 49 Tesla cars registered in North Carolina, and the company operates a service center in Raleigh, but it currently has no stores.

Citizens dismayed at the law had actually set up a private website, called Tesla Motors NC, to rally efforts around preventing passage of the law.

So if you're a North Carolina resident with a question about the 2013 Tesla Model S that only its maker can answer, you perhaps should plan to write Tesla a letter.

You know, the old-fashioned kind. Printed out and inserted into an envelope. With a postage stamp.

Unless, of course, the NC dealer association should conclude that the U.S. Postal Service is a "communications facility" too.

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Not only did the company have its first profitable quarter ever, but the many investors who had shorted the stock of Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] are now faced with the threat of expensive margin calls.

So Tesla is taking advantage of the price runup; it announced this afternoon that it would issue up to 2.7 million to 3.1 million more shares of its common stock.

At today's closing price of $84.84 per share, that would net the company $229 million to $263 million. It will also offer $450 million in convertible debt.

CEO Elon Musk simultaneously said he would also buy $100 million of shares with his own funds--$45 million from the new offering--giving it total expected proceeds of about $830 million.

But that's even not the big news.

The remarkable part of the company's release this afternoon is that Tesla plans to use the proceeds of the offering to prepay the remainder of its $465 million low-interest loan from the U.S. Department of Energy, both principal and interest.

That loan was granted in July 2009 as part of the DoE's advanced-technology vehicle manufacturing program, along with much larger loans to Ford ($5.9 billion) and Nissan ($1.6 billion, of which it drew down $1.4 billion).

Last fall, Tesla was deemed a "loser" company by name by unsuccessful Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who criticized a slew of companies to which the DoE loaned or granted money--a few of which have failed, most notably Solyndra.

Paying off its DoE loan entirely removes one stick used by Tesla critics to beat the company: that it is subsidized by your tax dollars and would not otherwise be viable.

Consider articles like this one, for example: Sorry, Tesla's Only Profitable Because Of Your Tax Dollars.

While Tesla Model S electric cars will still be eligible for the same Federal income-tax credit and other incentives as any plug-in car, paying off the loans means the Feds will no longer be in the business of providing operating funds for the company.

Startup Fisker Automotive was also granted $529 million in loans by the DoE, but the department cut off access after the company drew down $192 million.

While Fisker has not filed for bankruptcy, it has not built any of its Karma range-extended electric luxury sedans since last July, and laid off most of its employees last month.

Tesla's Model S electric sport sedan, meanwhile, received a rave review from notably cautious Consumer Reports two weeks ago.

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Now we have the final ratings for the 2013 Nissan Leaf compact hatchback: It's rated at 115 MPGe, up from the 99 MPGe for 2011 and 2012 models.

MPGe stands for Miles-Per-Gallon-equivalent, and it's a measure of the distance a plug-in electric car can travel on the same amount of energy that's contained in 1 gallon of gasoline.

That 115-MPGe rating is made up of two components: 129 MPGe on the city test, 102 MPGe on the highway cycle. (Nissan had earlier posted a 130-MPGe city rating, but has now corrected its site.)

The 2013 Leaf is also rated at 75 miles of range, up from the 73-mile rating of the 2011 and 2012 models.

Although, as Nissan explained several weeks ago, that rating is deceptive, because it's now an average of the range offered by an 80-percent charge (66 miles) and a 100-percent charge (84 miles).

The 2011-2012 rating of 73 miles was based entirely on a 100-percent charge, so it compares directly to the 84-mile distance--a 15-percent improvement.

None of those range calculations are explained on the EPA's Leaf data panels, by the way.

It's also worth noting that the EPA website shows increased passenger volume for the 2013 model (up from 90 to 92 cubic feet) and cargo space (from 23 to 24 cubic feet), due in part to the relocation of the onboard charger from the load bay to under the hood.

The site also shows a 7-hour recharge time for the 2013 Leaf, which is the same as the prior year's time.

That's not entirely accurate, since a new and faster 6.6-kilowatt charger is standard on the Leaf SV and Leaf SL models, and offered as an option on the base Leaf S model as well.

That 6.6-kW charger cuts recharging time to 4 hours or less from 7 hours--something the EPA might want to point out on their site.

As for safety ratings, the 2013 Nissan Leaf gets five stars overall from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

It also continues to be named a Top Safety Pick by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), as it was in previous years.

[hat tip: Brian Henderson]

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Most people already know the benefits of modern diesels, but there are a few general things that people may have missed.

So in the spirit of eight important things you should know about electric cars, here are six important things you should know about diesels.

(1) They're at their most efficient on the highway

Hybrid cars and diesels are both known for fuel efficiency, but both go about it in very different ways.

If you've ever looked at the EPA stickers for each gas-saving vehicle, you'll have noticed that hybrids do particularly well in city driving, and diesels on the highway. That highway performance is because diesel vehicles develop plenty of power and torque at relatively low engine revolutions.

That means you can pair them with quite tall gearing. And that in turn means they not only sit at low, efficient revs at highway speeds, but there's generally enough power available that you aren't forever changing down when climbing hills, wasting even more fuel.

(2) Diesel fuel is pricier

In some countries, running a diesel is a no-brainer from an economic standpoint. In some European countries, and in places like India, diesel is cheaper than gasoline--so the financial benefits are huge.

That isn't the case in the U.S, for three key reasons--explained by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The first is demand. As a fuel oil with a greater spectrum of uses than gasoline, demand is high worldwide. Relatively low supply to demand keeps prices high. In vehicles, the lower-polluting, lower-sulfur diesels used in road transport are more expensive to produce, pushing up the price.

Finally, federal taxation on diesel is 24.4 cents per gallon--6 cents more than gasoline.

(3) The cars are pricier too

It isn't just the fuel that costs more--the cars are more expensive too. A Volkswagen Jetta TDI starts at $23,055, around four grand more than a 170-horsepower 2.5-liter gasoline Jetta, and only a few thousand less than the $24,995 hybrid model with its twin drivetrains and battery pack.

Those differences are reflected across the board for diesel models. To meet tough emissions regulations, modern diesels are more complex than the average gasoline engine--with urea injection and other systems to clean up their tailpipes.

In an effort to improve driveability and refinement, dual-mass flywheels, particulate filters and extra sound-dampening also add to the vehicle's cost of manufacture. And that cost is passed down to you.

(4) Diesel smells...

This you might not know--or maybe it's the reason you still won't touch even the modern diesel cars, despite their improvements.

Unlike gasoline, which rapidly evaporates in air, diesel lingers for longer. It doesn't smell particularly pleasant and it's slick to the touch, which isn't great considering how many fuel pump handles seem to be covered in the stuff.

We just wish more U.S. stations would supply disposable gloves like their counterparts in Europe--it makes filling with diesel much more pleasant.

(5) Half of U.S. fuel stations offer it

Diesel's availability is far better than it used to be, but still isn't available everywhere just yet.

There are around 180,000 gas stations in the U.S, and about half of those offer diesel. Of that half, around half of those have it on the main pump ranks, so you won't have to go around the side to where the long-haul trucks fill up.

Diesel is slowly working its way into mainstream acceptance, so it should become easier to find as more and more cars are sold.

(6) Do the math before you buy

As with any major purchase decision, it pays to be informed before you buy a diesel vehicle.

For some customers, they'll be near-perfect--but don't just assume that buying a diesel will automatically mean lower fuel bills. If you regularly drive longer distances on wide, open roads, then it might be just what you're after--the savings will become apparent even though the cars and the fuel are more expensive.

But if you commute five miles a day through heavy traffic then you may never see the benefits--not just in terms of economy, but also enjoying the performance of your diesel.

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But they're still mostly a mystery to the average new-car buyer, and there are a few key principles that get shared over and over again.

Here they are, boiled down for easy consumption: eight things you need to know about electric cars.

(1) Electric cars cost more to buy than gasoline cars of the same size.

The least expensive plug-in electric car on the market, the 2013 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive, costs twice as much as the entry-level gasoline ForTwo.

A 2013 Nissan Leaf electric car starts at $28,800 (before incentives), while a similarly-sized Sentra starts at $15,990.

(2) Electric cars cost a lot less per mile to operate.

If you pay $4 a gallon for gasoline, a 25-mpg gas car needs $16 in fuel every 100 miles. An electric car uses 75 cents to $6.50 in electricity to cover that same 100 miles, depending on your local rate per kilowatt-hour

(3) Some plug-in cars have engines as well; some don't.

When people say "electric car," they often think of pure battery-electric vehicles like the Nissan Leaf or Tesla Model S.

But there's another category of cars that have both a plug to recharge a battery pack from the wall and an engine as well. Sometimes they're adapted from hybrids--that's the path taken by Ford, Honda, and Toyota--and other times they are dedicated vehicles, like the Chevrolet Volt.

Most owners of those cars make every effort to drive as many miles as possible on electric power alone--but they have the security of knowing their car won't be immobile at the side of the road--unless they both deplete the battery and run out of gas.

(4) Electric cars are much nicer to drive than you think.

We're pretty much past the, "Oh, they're all golf carts" stage. But a lot of drivers don't (yet) know that electric cars are very quiet (no engine or transmission noises when running on battery power), as well as surprisingly torquey.

Their motors produce maximum output from 0 rpm, so acceleration away from a stop is strong and smooth. Drivers like that.

And the fact that electric cars are a nicer driving experience may be their secret weapon once they arrive in volume.

(5) Range anxiety abates.

It's entirely normal for drivers to worry as they see the number of available miles on a battery electric car ticking down toward zero.

But as experienced electric-car owners will tell you, in general you drive fewer miles each day than you think--and over time, you get comfortable that a fully charged electric car really can deliver that number of miles, reliably, over and over and over.

(6) Temperature matters.

Electric-car batteries, like people, are happiest at temperatures of around 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

Extreme heat--as in Phoenix, Arizona, where summer road surfaces can reach 150 degrees--and extreme cold (as in the northern third of the U.S. and most of Canada) can reduce range.

Add to that energy-sucking heaters (or, to a lesser extent, air conditioning) and you can reduce your range by a third in very cold weather.

Luckily, California is expected to buy more plug-in electric cars than the next five states combined--and that state has weather that's pretty close to perfect for electric cars much of the year.

(7) Yes, there is a long tailpipe--but electric cars emit less.

This isn't the place to go through the math, but two separate studies have shown that driving a mile on grid power emits less carbon dioxide than a mile in a 25-mpg car.

And in many states, it's even better than a mile in a 50-mpg Toyota Prius hybrid--the most fuel-efficient car sold today.

(8) Yes, you can take them through car washes just fine; deep puddles, too.

Chevrolet even produced a video showing the water trough test it performs on the Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car to ensure its electric systems stay neatly sealed against any water incursion.

What other questions do you have about electric cars? Or important advice that you want to share with the broader universe of car buyers?

Leave us your thoughts in the Comments below.

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