Michigan bill could block most EV makers from direct sales there

Any EV manufacturer other than Tesla could be stopped from selling vehicles directly to customers in Michigan, US, if a bill introduced to the state legislature gets the vote.

The bill could stop EV makers like Rivian and Lucid from following Tesla’s sales lead and may also prevent them running service and repair facilities.

The Michigan bill is an attempt to shut the door behind Tesla, which prevailed in a long legal battle with Michigan auto dealers in January when the Michigan attorney general granted a workaround that allows the electric carmaker to deliver its vehicles to buyers without requiring them to leave the state, Bloomberg reports.

It says the attorney general’s ruling also allows Tesla to indirectly own service centres in Michigan through a subsidiary.

This sets Tesla apart from Ford, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and other auto companies, which operate under franchise laws that have been around for decades and were originally intended to prevent manufacturers from opening stores that competed with dealers, Bloomberg

says.

The Michigan Automobile Dealers Association (MADA), which represents about 600 new-car dealerships in the state, says the agreement with Tesla didn’t change state law banning direct sales, and the bill is intended to clear up any ambiguity.