Electric Vehicles discussion (was NJ bans Tesla dealerships)

The short answer is because our governments, at both the state and local levels, are run by corporations and the rich. In this case, NJ Auto Dealers want a piece of the action, so they spent some lobbying money, and viola -- the market has spoken -- people can't purchase an item they want.

 

What a ********ing joke.

 

It's not supposed to be just cars. In theory US law prevents stove piping in which the same company is the sole manufacturer of a product and the sole source to buy that product. By being the sole manufacturing source and retail source for their cars, Tesla is violating that law. The difference here between Apple manufacturing Apple projects and having Apple stores is that Apple products are still available in other retail establishments. So even though Apple controls the entire manufacturing to retail process with its stores, it still has competition with the non-Apple stores that its products are available in..

That being said, MattR is not wrong.

 

What it really comes down to is that state associations of car dealers are a powerful and organized lobbying group. It's hard to make an argument in favor of having to buy your car through a parasitic middleman rather than directly from the manufacturer. Car buying is still stuck in the mid-20th century.

 

You'll appreciate this, MitH. The new marijuana laws in the Washington prevent growers from being the retailers for the product they grow and they are limiting co-ops to a max of four people. The current fear is that it will shutdown the independent medical marijuana stores in Washington and push them into the medical marijuana users into the commercial marijuana stores.

 

That said, the profit dealerships make on new cars isn't anywhere near as high as people think. It's about 2-3%.

They actually make loads on financing, and all those accessories that get added on.

And servicing of course, which is a massive source of income. About a third of every servicing bill is profit. Parts is about a quarter profit. A key statistic for every dealership is something called absorption, which is the degree that the money made from aftersales covers all the costs of the while dealership.


Manufacturers also supply vehicles to dealerships at a basic price because it's in their interest to shift them. By allowing dealerships to sell them, they don't need to cover the cost of running dealerships. It a false assumption that doing away with dealerships would see prices lowered. Manufacturers of almost everything don't sell direct for a reason.

 

What they said. This is indefensible. Chris Christie needs to withdraw from public life ASAP.

 

Hopefully no one believes this crap anymore.

Chris Christie is a terrible human being.

 

The car business is the only industry I can think of where you have to go and pick whatever is available, then fight over the price.

What I want is to be able to go onto Ford's website, pick my car with all the options I want, get a price quote, then have it delivered to my house a few weeks later.

 

I think electric cars are the future, but I don't see people shifting over to them until they drop in price significantly.

 

We can not replace all cars with electrics, not enough materials for the batteries.

It has to be mix, gas, oil, electric, hydrogen, maybe even solar in some places (Australia, Egypt, Arizona).

 

Electric cars don't meaningfully affect an electric bill. I spend 50 cents a day for my daily commute on electricity for my Nissan Leaf. Yes I do have a good electric rate, but still.

 

For family/personal cars electric is going to be the way. If your commute is less than 40 miles per day I think most (all?) electric/hybrid vehicles are designed with that number in mind. Trucks and buses are a different because they have longer routes and they use more energy but they are also increasing the participation of electricity in their mixture.



Yep, I usually don't like the guys featured in that video but this seems to be the right move.

 

I can see where it would be an advantage to have a Tesla w/a small solar panel in Germany as it's a lot sunnier there. I read that somewhere recently.

 

I don't know if it is the same guy, but a few months back some blogger posted his experiences as a Nissan Leaf owner and having fitted his house with solar panels. If I remember correctly, he said that running his Leaf was costing him a few cents per month...

http://drivingelectric.blogspot.com/2013/05/two-years-summary-of-life-with-our.html

 

I don't believe medical marijuana requires a pharmacist in WA. But the issues are that there is way more medical marijuana shops than there will be commercial and that there won't be the variety of symptom specific strains available in commercial shops.