Tesla Motors has lined up an unusually broad coalition of supporters, with the Sierra Club and the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity signing off on a letter that urges state governments not to block the company’s strategy of selling its electric cars directly to consumers.
“Currently, many states have laws that prevent car companies from opening showrooms and selling directly to consumers, instead of going through a dealer. Auto dealers have argued that the laws are necessary to prevent manufacturers from undercutting their prices and competing on unfair terms,” The Hill reports.
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“These laws retard innovation by making it harder for new technologies to achieve wide distribution and hence reach an adequate scale to be sustainable in the market,” the letter states. “These laws have negative consequences for the entire automotive industry — including what kinds of cars are built and sold, how they are powered, and what innovative new technologies can reach the market.”
Other signatories include the American Antitrust Institute, the Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Action, the Institute for Justice, and the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation.
