Tesla opens store on Native land - Indian Country Today
By: Indian Country Today
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The electric car company can only sell and service its vehicles freely in about a dozen states, while it faces restrictions in others. This time, it used a new approach Author: The Associated Press
Tesla owners, Tesla employees and local political leaders gather at the service bay doors during an event on Sept. 9, 2021, to celebrate a partnership between Tesla and the Nambe Pueblo after the electric car company repurposed a defunct casino into a sales, service and delivery center near Santa Fe, N.M. Tesla has opened a store on tribal land in New Mexico, sidestepping car dealership laws that prohibit car companies from selling directly to customers. (Jim Weber/Santa Fe New Mexican via AP)
The electric car company can only sell and service its vehicles freely in about a dozen states, while it faces restrictions in others. This time, it used a new approach
Cedar Attanasio
Associated Press
NAMBE, N.M. — Carmaker Tesla has opened a store and repair shop on Native land for the first time, marking a new approach to its yearslong fight to sell cars directly to consumers and cut car dealerships out of the process.
The white-walled, silver-lettered Tesla store, which opened last week, sits in Nambe Pueblo, north of Santa Fe, on tribal land that's not subject to state laws.
The electric car company can only sell and service its vehicles freely in about a dozen states, while it faces restrictions in others. Some, like New Mexico, ban Tesla from offering sales or repairs without going through a dealership. In January, the company struck a deal with Michigan to resolve a 2016 lawsuit, a symbolic victory that allowed it to sell in the backyard of the nation's largest carmakers.
Supporters of Tesla say the shop in New Mexico marks the first time the company has partnered with a tribe to get around state laws, though the idea has been in the works for years.
From Oklahoma to Connecticut and other states, consumers can't buy Teslas because the company won't partner with dealerships and hasn't been successful in winning over the courts or lawmakers to allow its direct sales model.
"These states have lots of sovereign Native American nations in them that could be interested in Tesla," said Brian Dear, president of the Tesla Owners Club of New Mexico. "I don't believe at all that this will be the last."
Supporters say dealership laws protect middle-class jobs and force dealerships to compete, lowering prices. Critics say people can get information online and direct sales would lower costs.
New Mexico, Alabama, and Louisiana have the strictest bans, barring Tesla from both operating dealerships and repair shops. That makes repairing a Tesla more expensive and more of a hassle. Owners have to get their cars serviced in neighboring states or through traveling Tesla technicians who fix problems with what they have in a van.
The New Mexico Tesla shop, built on the site of a former casino, is nestled between two gas stations along a highway about an hour and a half north of Albuquerque, where most of the state's Tesla owners live, Dear said.
While sales are prohibited in neighboring Texas — where the company plans to make its pickup trucks next year — repair shops are allowed. New Mexico Tesla owners have been traveling to El Paso, Texas, or other out-of-state cities to get repairs.
To buy a Tesla, they have to drive hours to pick them up or pay thousands of dollars to have them shipped.
"We drove a gas car — Volvo station wagon — to Denver and then I was the 'lucky one' who got to drive the gas-powered car back," said Howard Coe, a filmmaker who works for a laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, about 30 minutes from Nambe and about five hours from the nearest Colorado Tesla store.
Coe drove his wife's Tesla sedan to the new store in Nambe on Tuesday to ask if an SUV he ordered can be delivered there. The store told him it's not accepting deliveries for the foreseeable future and won't do repairs until later this month.
Tribal officials who brokered the deal over a two-year period say it lines up with business interests and cultural values like caring for the environment.
The tribe "has the responsibility to the land where we have resided for over 1,000 years," said Carlos Vigil, president of the Nambe Pueblo Development Corporation, calling Tesla's service center "a renewable business that lines up with our belief system."
Car dealership advocates say they respect the tribe's decision but that they hope customers will buy electric cars from companies that follow state rules, arguing dealerships compete to lower prices and can service vehicles in more parts of the state.
"We have competition, we have the expertise, we're in your local communities," said Ken Ortiz, president of the New Mexico Automotive Dealers Association. "We contribute to the taxes."
New Mexico has tax treaties with the tribe for sales, gambling and gasoline taxes. But tribal and state officials say it's unclear if Tesla will have to pay vehicle sales taxes or how the revenue would be split between them.
Tesla, which dissolved its public relations department and generally doesn't answer media inquiries, did not respond to a request for comment.
In response to a Tweet complaining of wait times in the Northeast last month, CEO Elon Musk wrote, "Tesla will expedite service center openings."
The electric version of Ford's F-150 pickup has also turned heads.
The pickup, announced earlier this year, looks much like its wildly popular gas-powered version. Yet the resemblance is deceiving. With its new battery-powered truck, Ford is making a costly bet that buyers will embrace a vehicle that would help transform how the world drives.
Branded the F-150 Lightning, the pickup will be able to travel up to 300 miles per battery charge, thanks to a frame designed to safely hold a huge lithium-ion battery that can power your house should the electricity go out.
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This will surely be a new battleground for Tesla and NA tribes vs states laws re auto sales.
It's about time. If car dealers weren't infamous for treating customers like shit, they wouldn't need their existence written into law.
I hope Tesla and several other manufacturers open stores on dozens of reservations. I'd happily drive the hour north to Choctaw to not have to deal with the car dealer bullshit.
Not sure about the other dealers but it does seem that Telsa has found a way around some of the current laws in very restrictive states like NM.
Texas is that restrictive.
The absolute hilarity of the entire situation is that the justification for not allowing direct sales is that the dealers are a "protection" for the consumer.
When is the last time you went into a car dealership and felt "protected"?
Tell them Clay sent you!
LMAO
If you want to purchase a Tesla in Texas you can do the old Texas Two Step. I wonder now that Telsa has announced they will be building a plant in Texas if Texas will change its laws like Nevada did when Telsa built a battery facility here.
I doubt it. Car dealers make a ton of money and own a ton of politicians.
Huffines?
I haven't been there.
I was at a Toyota dealer in a northern suburb a couple of weeks ago looking for a Tacoma for my son. They advertised the truck for something like $27k. When you get there, the final sticker price is over $42k. Bullshit dealer add ons, etc, and a $5k "market adjustment". That doesn't include TT&L!!
When my wife and I were newlyweds, we bought her a car at a local Ford dealer. She wanted it in her name so she could build some credit history. We already had really good credit, so we could get a low interest rate from our bank. When the dealer guys were talking to ME...they said they'd match whatever rate we got elsewhere and we worked out the details. When the business office saw a woman's name on the paperwork, the interest rate mysteriously doubled.
I was at the old Steakly Chevrolet in Dallas years ago. I test drove a truck, we agreed on the deal, good to go. I come back the next day, sign the paperwork, and then they tried to give me a different truck. Like I didn't remember the one I drove. What...the...actual...fuck? Really?
The sooner every one of these places goes out of business, the better.
Oh the stories I could tell, lol
Clay Cooley dealerships ranked in the bottom 20% CSI
too funny!
and apparenty Mr Huffines wants to be Governor Huffines
at least he;s more reputable than Clay Cooley
Hold up... Isn't the man like 110 years old by now?
Shop me first,
Shop me last,
Either way,
Come see Clay!
Those stupid commercials make me
!
I've never purchased a car there, but have heard scads of heinous stories from people that have. The one I hear the most is regarding new cars that break down within the first couple of days. They don't particularly care if your brand new car is parked in their service lot 2 weeks out of every month.
google 'clay cooley complaints'
one page would be too many, but 112,000 hits?
I sold cars 30+ years ago. what a horrible way to starve to death.
Ray (80) owns the dealerships with one son (53)
Don Huffines runs Huffines Communities a real estate developer with his twin bother.
He started out changing oil at the dealerships
Don is 63 but looks older than Ray,
Don is a former TX senator who refused part time per diems, loves Trump
and has a reputation as being the most conservative legislator EVER elected in TX.
40 plus years ago, weeknights and Saturdays.
ugh
bell to bell on a floor flooded with salespersons. surrounded by drunks, coke freaks, crooks, and assholes.
When you mentioned him before, I totally forgot he's already been elected as something or other.
Isn't he the jackass that tried to throw a monkey wrench in all the highway development because you have to pay tolls to use TexPress? Idiot somehow didn't understand that when I pay a toll to use a different highway, there is less traffic on the highway I didn't take.
"...caring for the environment."
That issue always seems glossed over. The end game will be looking for receptacles for 100,000,000 autos while not using all the fossils. The Nantucket NIMBYs and their ilk are going to have to yield to electrical generation progress.
LOL, yeah and it's not only the Nantucket NIMBYS.
You should have been a comedian.....
I am all for anything that brings business and attention to Native American communities.
This seems that it could be a success and could lead to more Tesla facilities on Native land through out the US.
it could lead to a lot of businesses moving to NA nations in search of tax relief.
Yes it could, it will be interesting to say the least.
Wonderful for the economic boost to NA nations.
Question: Do the NA nations have their versions of an EPA agency to protect the environment of their lands?
Yes, some nations do, especially the larger ones. The Nambe Pueblo does have one.
Thank you for the info. I sincerely hope that all nations have leadership that protects the lands that they have left under their jurisdiction.
Years ago, I signed petitions to save Bear Butte from development. I am embarrassed to admit that I haven't checked on what has happened to the area in many years.
Far too many people, who live in mega cities, don't understand why the wilderness and farmlands must be protected from urban sprawl. And, commercial development must be highly regulated to prevent damage to all life that depend on these areas to survive.
Native tribes bought a couple of hundred acres around Bear Butte stoping some of the planned development. Not sure what is happening at the moment.
Me, too!
You just got to love Musk. He really thinks out of the box and brings both industry and sales to native lands is a boom for both Indians and the ecology. The tax relief is just a little extra for Tesla.
Musk does think out of the box.
He might have his daddy's looks, but he got his beautiful mother's smarts.
I feel sure that the Nembe Pueblo Tribe consulted with other Tribes that have/are working with Musk to confirm his trustworthiness in keeping his word in their agreement. He does have much to gain by doing so, like adding other Tribes to partner with.
Will he lower the cost of products there if he is not stuck with taxes?
He will have to pay some taxes. The tribes all have compacts with the state to share revenue on casino revenue and I doubt it will be any different with Tesla and the tribes.
it will reduce the length of the conduit in getting that money to where it's needed the most.
Exactly and will provide employment as well.
Well some employment, there just isn't a lot to be done on a Tesla as far as maintenance goes.
Which is part of the reason Musk doesn't want a traditional service oriented dealership model.
All true, but there have to be people to accept and deliver the cars, maintain the facility etc.
Is Tesla going to train members of the Tribe how to maintain and repair their cars in their store? Or are they going to bring in their own people to do those jobs?
I don't know RW. I couldn't find anything on that. SP comment above shows that there isn't going to be a lot of maintence on the cars.
Yes, I read what SP posted about the maintainence. I was just curious as to who was going to cover tire rotations, changing out the filters, etc. Some things I am sure a good many people could do themselves, but, there could be some of the things Tesla recommends that might need to be done by the store.
I'm not sure as I haven't read anything about that part of the deal. It would sure help if the Nambe Pueblo people manned the store.
Indeed it would be a big help for the Nambe Pueblo people to man the store. There is likely going to be more of their own people participating there than outsiders, at least in the beginning, and they might feel more comfortable dealing with their own pople. And when those from other areas do come there, the Nambe Pueblo would be able to help them to understand any of the Tribal rules and laws that might come up.
It would be a win-win for both sides.
That sounds like they're pretty low maintainance. When you don't have an engine or transmission you have way fewer moving parts to wear out. Wait... Don't you rotate the tires every time you drive it?
Whether or not taxes have to be paid, there will still be a win-win situation for Musk and for the Tribes.
Just down the hill from where I used to live. Very cool and good for the pueblo. I do like the fact that the state can't mess with them, too much.
I think that it's a great idea and hopefully, it will be successful.
I hope it is too.
Not sure why - can't put my finger on it "exactly" - but - for some reason I just don't feel comfortable with this "deal".
Please don't jump on me - just a "feeling".
No problem, just self preservation kicking in.