Direct auto sales bills have been popular in the last few years with the rise of Tesla, an electric car company that doesn’t have franchised dealerships, such as in Connecticut.
On Wednesday, the General Assembly’s Transportation Committee passed Senate Bill 127, a bill that effectively allows direct sales from auto companies to customers in Connecticut without the need to operate a franchised dealership, reports CT Post.
The bill passed with over two-thirds of the Senate’s support and is set to allow electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers like Tesla and Lucid Motors, among others, to sell their cars directly to buyers.
Tesla, Rivian and Lucid Join Together to Fight Direct Sales Laws https://t.co/YIqsbExYUm
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) March 3, 2021
Senator Will Haskell, one of two Senators who proposed the bill, believes this legislation will help the state catch up to formerly-proposed emissions goals by increasing the number of EV options for buyers in Connecticut’s market.
Haskell said, “We’ve set a really ambitious goal in this state to put 500,000 electric vehicles on the road by 2030, but sadly we’re nowhere close to meeting that goal. We’ve got just over 13,000 electric vehicles on the road.”
“Many of us think this state should be doing everything it can to make it easier, more convenient to get behind the wheel of an electric vehicle, and instead our state laws do just the opposite. We force people who want to buy a Tesla, Rivian or Lucid to go out of state to make that purchase,” continued the Senator.
Similar legislation has been proposed in Texas with House Bill 4379, which would allow Texas buyers to purchase cars directly from dealers. Michigan, the home of legacy automakers Dodge/Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors (GM), also tried to pass legislation last year that removed direct sales from legality, which would effectively ban Tesla, Lucid, and other EVs from competing within Ford and GM’s EV home market.
