New Jersey Bans Tesla Showrooms, Doesn’t Even Need a Law

From the school of “anything not permitted is
prohibited” comes news that today New Jersey’s Motor Vehicles
Commission has unilaterally banned electric car showrooms operated
by companies without franchised dealerships from the state of New
Jersey.
Via Bloomberg:

“Since Tesla first began operating in New Jersey one
year ago, it was made clear that the company would need to engage
the Legislature on a bill to establish their new direct-sales
operations under New Jersey law,” said Kevin Roberts, a spokesman
for [Republican New Jersey Governor Chris] Christie. “This
administration does not find it appropriate to unilaterally change
the way cars are sold in New Jersey without legislation and Tesla
has been aware of this position since the beginning.”

Tesla says it didn’t even know about the proposed rules change
until yesterday. The Commission, which passed the rule unanimously,
is chaired by a Christie nominee, and includes three members of
Christie’s cabinet. Tesla has been fighting similar
control-freak/cronyist nonsense around the country. After all,
these kind of laws and rules prohibiting Tesla from selling cars
directly to consumers are generally intended to defend car
dealerships, and are lobbied for by them. Even
Texas, whose governor insists his state is “wide open for
business,” passed a protectionist law against electric car direct
sales. Tesla
did win a battle in New York, where a bill denying registration
for cars not brought through a dealer failed to pass the
legislature. Last year, Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, said his company
had
two options to secure its ability to sell cars directly to
customers, lobby Congress for federal legislation or file a federal
lawsuit.

Tesla’s status, meanwhile, as a recipient of the fruits of crony
capitalism on the federal level means it’s given an unfair
advantage by the federal government and then saddled with unfair
disadvantages by state governments, as A. Barton Hinkle
noted last year.