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Elon Musk hints at need for franchised Tesla dealerships

The auto dealers around the US, the ones who are frantically trying to stop Tesla Motors from selling its cars directly to consumers, might just need to wait things out. The latest state to take an aggressive stance against Telsa's dealer-free policy is Michigan, but in an new interview with Autoline Daily, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that as the company grows, it may need to introduce franchised dealerships into its sales model. Currently, Tesla only sells vehicles directly to customers through a network of Tesla Stores. But that may not be enough once more vehicles – the Model X and the Model 3 – arrive and demand for the electric vehicles grows in all fifty states. According to Autoline Daily host John McElroy, when he asked Musk about future growth, Musk admitted that, "We may need a hybrid system, with a combination of our own stores and some dealer franchises." That's a big turn around from Musk's previous claims that normal dealerships can't properly sell electric vehicles and that, if necessary, Tesla would try to change the laws nationwide to allow direct sales, a strategy that has had its share of successes, including surprising support from the FTC. Still, selling a few thousand vehicles a month is a lot different than selling tens of thousands, and that's the sort of thing that Tesla's legislative director Jim Chen may have been thinking about when, in a closed-door regulatory meeting in the fall of 2013, he reportedly said that Tesla would stop its factory-direct-only policy once sales increased to some unspecified level, according to Hybrid Cars. You can see the AD video below. The Tesla news is first in the line-up. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Norway about to run out of EV incentives; plan to be reviewed

As electric vehicle advocates in Norway may ready to celebrate, executives over at Tesla Motors and Nissan may be preparing for a healthy bawl. That's because Norway, whose financial support of plug-in vehicle use have pushed the country to the forefront of plug-in vehicle adoption, is about to reach its government-imposed threshold for electric vehicle and plug-in vehicle incentives, Hybrid Cars says. Two years early, in fact. Norway's perks for EVs and PHEVs include free access to bus lanes, highway tolls, ferries and parking, not to mention a big tax rebate. As a result, the country is less than 250 units away from hitting its 50,000-vehicle limit for those perks, which were initially estimated to expire in 2017. In fact, last month, more than 25 percent of the four new cars sold in Norway were plug-in vehicles. The government is now saying it will review the incentives and put forward a new plan in the next budget, which is due in May. Late last year, Nissan put out a video saying that electric vehicles had about a 15-percent new-vehicle market share in Norway, and that the Japanese automaker had sold more than 15,000 all-electric Leaf vehicles in the country since starting sales there in 2011. Last spring, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Tesla Model S broke Norway's all-time monthly sales record for a single model in March 2014, with almost 1,500 Model S vehicles sold. This is for a country whose population is less than that of Colorado. Whether those days will soon be gone remains in question. Advocates will push for some sort of extension on the perks, but opponents in government say the incentives have cost the country as much as $500 million a year in tax revenue. News Source: Hybrid CarsImage Credit: Elbilforeningen/Flickr Government/Legal Green Nissan Tesla Electric incentives government incentives

Washington State governor signs pro-Tesla bill

Maybe Tesla should build its proposed gigafactory in the Evergreen State. Last week, Washington Govermor Jay Inslee signed a bill that will allow Tesla to keep selling its electric vehicles through its showrooms and not have to work through third-party dealerships, Automotive News says. That means the California-based electric-vehicle maker can keep its showrooms in Seattle and Bellevue open. Oddly, the bill appears to more-or-less grandfather Tesla into factory-to-customer legality, allowing Tesla to expand its number of showrooms while preventing any other automaker who didn't have a state dealership license as of January 1, 2014, to do the same. The news isn't exactly stunning, given the state's largely pro-green attitude and progressive approach to plug-in vehicle technology. A fast-charging-station network has been built along Interstate 5 in both Washington and Oregon, and, as of late 2013, Washington's I-5 stations were getting used about twice as much as they were in 2012. Still, the bill represents a substantial victory for Tesla, whose representatives didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from AutoblogGreen. Last month, New Jersey said Tesla would have to close its two factory-owned stores in the state. Tesla lost a similar battle in Texas last year, while the company has made some headway in states like Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina and Ohio. Last year, Tesla chief Elon Musk went as far as saying he'd go to the federal government to try to overturn such laws, but that avenue of attack has not yet been attempted.