dealers

The stories abound: A car buyer walks into a dealership, educated about the electric car she wants to buy...and the salesperson tries to convince her she doesn't want that car after all. She really wants a gasoline car, he argues. MORE: Why Some Dealers Are Inept At Selling Plug-In Electric Cars...

Ohio car dealers are once again trying to force Tesla Motors out of the Buckeye State through legislation.

With legislation defeated, Ohio car dealers are turning to the courts to block Tesla's company-owned stores.

People tend to recall bad or frustrating experiences more acutely than good ones. Which is likely why a staple of plug-in car forums is the bad-treatment-at-a-car-dealership story. Anecdotes abound about Chevrolet and Nissan dealers who tried to pull Volt and Leaf buyers away from plug-in electrics...

Once more into the fray: Another state's car dealers are pushing for legislation to ban Tesla Motors from selling its electric cars directly to buyers. This time it's Ohio. And legislators have unexpectedly moved up a hearing on the new law to today, according to a letter from Tesla Motors...

Over the last couple of years, Tesla Motors has fought legal and legislative battles in a number of states over proposed or current state laws that try to stymie its unique factory-direct sales and service model. In most cases--Massachusetts, New York, and North Carolina, among others--Tesla has...

State and national auto-dealer groups have been battling Tesla Motors for four years now. The dealers want to stop Tesla from selling its electric cars directly to buyers, and are working to change state laws so Tesla will have to conduct all sales through independently-owned third parties--which...

Remember Fisker Automotive, the startup carmaker that sold the $106,000 luxury range-extended electric sport sedan called the Karma? Hang onto your memories, because the physical traces of Fisker's existence are vanishing quickly. These photos show what's happening to the dealership that was...

Tesla Motors has dodged two big bullets fired its way by New York and North Carolina legislatures and auto dealers. Last week, the New York State Senate and Assembly adjourned until January without acting on two bills pushed by state auto dealers that would have made it illegal to register a Tesla...

Well, this is a new tactic we haven't seen before in the fight between franchised auto dealers and Tesla Motors, the Silicon Valley electric-car startup. A pair of bills in the New York State Legislature, backed by New York state auto dealers, would make it illegal to license or renew licenses for...

How far will state car-dealer associations go to prevent Tesla Motors from opening its electric-car showrooms and selling cars over the Internet? 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...

Several thousand Tesla owners have now purchased their cars by ordering and paying for them online after visiting a Tesla Store showroom. No franchised dealers are involved. That's a model that Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] feels is crucial to getting its electric cars into the mainstream. State and...

Texas is tough, and Texas car dealers are no exception. But electric-car startup Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA], in the person of its CEO Elon Musk, testified yesterday at a hearing in the Texas legislature on a bill that would allow it to sell its cars directly to Texas buyers. That's presently illegal...

Like a lot of news from Tesla, this came in the form of a tweet by CEO Elon Musk on Friday morning. It read, in its entirety, "Minnesota auto dealers tried to pass legislation to block Tesla stores. Bill was just defeated in Senate. Thanks MN!" And indeed, a Minnesota Senate committee voted down...

After more than an hour of discussion last night, the town selectmen of Natick, Massachusetts, voted 4-1 to grant a license to sell cars to Tesla Motors Massachusetts. The local company, which the Selectmen concluded was legally separate from Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA], will operate out of a property...

Tesla Motors is facing a formidable opponent it may not have sufficiently appreciated: the auto dealers of America, and their state associations. Tesla, you may remember, is selling its electric cars online, not through franchised, independently owned dealers, and delivering them directly to buyers...

Thanks to its ever-expanding range of hybrids, including the well-known Prius liftback, Toyota Toyota dealers have a wide range of green cars to sell. You may think that would make them more receptive to selling all-electric cars, but a recent survey from AutoRetailNet (via plugincars) suggests...

If we had to pick one word to describe Tesla Motors, "audacious" would be at the top of the list. Not only did founder Elon Musk decide to build a car company, which in itself is pretty gutsy. He chose to create a car company that builds nothing but electric cars -- pricey, high-end electric cars...

Plug-in car sales hit a new record in September--more than 5,500 sold in a single month--and there will likely be more records to come. But plug-in hybrids and battery electric cars are still unfamiliar to most U.S. car buyers, not to mention pricey. And there's increasing discussion that the...

Sometimes, automakers mark the switch between one model year and the next with some pomp and ceremony, especially if the new model year is significantly better than the outgoing one. Despite the 2013 Chevrolet Volt getting an improved all-electric range, better EPA rating and the addition of a...