While You Were Sleeping: March 19th, 2015
March 19th, 2015 7:08 AM
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The ban on Tesla’s direct sales in New Jersey is over.
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Those Optima concept drawings could very well refer to the current model. The only real difference in the design is small windows and larger wheels.
Tesla New Jersey. Awesome - win for Tesla. Why in the world would you add a 400hp Supra engine to an old beat up Corona wagon? The fan mounted on the dash is classic. I've never really understood project cars like this. Kia Optima. Hard to have any excitement at all over a sketch. Truthfully, it looks remarkably similar to the current model.
The law that was passed was made as narrow as possible: If you are an exclusively zero emission car mfr, you can have up to 4 direct sales locations in NJ. Tesla already has 3 (which were temporarily converted to non-selling "showrooms" while they were waiting for the law to pass) and so they can open only 1 more store. NJ is a physically small state (albeit with a large population) so this might be enough. The car dealers opposed it anyway - camel's nose in the tent. They said it was about "consumer protection". Musk says it's about "protection" alright, in the Mafia sense of the word.
You should be aware about certain things that may make you prefer dealers. For example, Tesla changes software as it wants and there is no way to refuse update or roll it back. Would you like Microsoft to forcibly update you to Windows 8? Well that's what Tesla does.