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CT Owners - This is about as easy as it gets to contact your state senator ...

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bonnie

I play a nice person on twitter.
Feb 6, 2011
16,429
9,944
Columbia River Gorge
Step 1.) CLICK HERE TO EMAIL SENATE — Use the username: “tesla” & the password: “cars1234”
Step 2.) once logged into the bill tracking system, click on the tab in the top left corner “EMAIL”, a drop down menu will appear.

Step 3.) Click “SENATE” on the drop-down menu, and a generated email will appear with all the correct recipients.

Step 4.) Fill in the “From” line with your preferred email address, fill in the “Subject” line with corresponding information above.

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Dear Senator,

As a constituent in your district and as a current and/or future owner of a Tesla vehicle, I’m writing you to support SB 3, which would allow Tesla the opportunity to sell and expand their economic footprint in the state of Connecticut.

Tesla sells its award-winning electric vehicles directly to consumers rather than going through the traditional dealer franchise system. Currently, Tesla sells in over twenty states in the U.S. and in Washington D.C. Only five states prohibit Tesla from selling direct to consumers. Connecticut is one of those five states. Our neighboring states of New York and Massachusetts have sold over 1,000 vehicles to Connecticut residents.

Senate Bill 3 preserves the protections that dealers have from the manufacturers, while at the same time allowing a manufacturer of electric vehicles WITHOUT dealers to sell directly to consumers. Tesla is NOT seeking a loophole as they have never franchised in Connecticut or anywhere else in the world.

Opening stores in Connecticut is a high priority of Tesla’s, each store creates 15-20 jobs. At a time when businesses are leaving Connecticut every day, Tesla wants to come and invest in our state.

As a consumer of this product, please don't continue to put me at a disadvantage simply because the state has neglected to update their archaic franchise laws, which exclude a great American car company like Tesla to operate.

I urge you to support SB 3. In doing so you are supporting jobs and the freedom to buy electric vehicles.
 
The email system essentially sends this to ALL CT senators yet the form letter provided reads like you are addressing your specific representative.

I've already emailed (and tweeted) my Senator (T. Hwang).

Being a CT resident, does it make sense to send a note to all Senators even though they don't represent me in my district. Happy to do so but would rather not be seen as a spammer. It's probably more meaningful if they get the email from someone within their districts.
 
I forwarded a link to this thread to several friends and family in CT. Asked them to commit to writing an email. Next Wednesday is May 4th. Only a few days remain until the current legislative session adjourns. Also, no surprise, Tesla has wide public support in CT.

CT News Junkie | Poll Finds Support For Tesla’s Business Model

this is definitely accurate. I will not vote for my representatives again if they vote against this bill

Being a CT resident, does it make sense to send a note to all Senators even though they don't represent me in my district. Happy to do so but would rather not be seen as a spammer. It's probably more meaningful if they get the email from someone within their districts.

I've already done it a few times. Some responded saying they will be supporting the bill. I have yet to have anyone respond to me saying they will not be supporting it but that's probably expected.

Those I got favorable responses from:

Art Linares (Tesla owner who had to travel to NY to buy his)
Carlo Leone
 
I'm disgusted. But that's not new.

This will backfire on GM in the long-term. Short-term, it's unacceptable.

I've always operated in business by saying 'we compete by building the better product'. Period. No negative ads. No dirty tricks. Build a better product. GM's reputation will take a hit over all these things they're doing. ...
 
Agreed, Bonnie.

As an EV advocate, for years I've been around many people that HATE GM for "killing the electric car." I've always tried to modulate that: other automakers crushed cars too, GM was the only one that built a dedicated EV back then; the Volt was an early PHEV that delivered well on the EV experience and is still the best PHEV example, pretty much every automaker has done things I don't like; it's long enough ago that pretty much all of the staff has turned over, etc. For the most part I try to send a message by picking the best car for me, which also happens to be pretty convenient. If multiple cars will do, yeah then I'll consider automaker reputation.

But GM has been going at this sort of thing hard and heavy for quite a while. All the other automakers seem to know enough to stay out of it. The Bolt will be the next EV out that suits my needs, and it sounds like a great fit indeed. I was planning on giving it heavy consideration. But I really don't think so anymore.

It really comes down to what you said - I'm happy to support anybody trying to build a good product. But if you're trying to compete by lobbying lawmakers to pass bills that are not in the interest of the citizenry...yeah, I take major offense to that.

(Mind you, all sorts of people go to lawmakers asking for things that are in their own interest, and the lawmakers are supposed to sort it all out and pass the best laws for everybody. The lawmakers are quite at fault here too. I'm not against GM asking for something that helps them out...but being duplicitous when seeking laws that harm competitors and consumers when many lawmakers are too swamped to research all of your claims is beyond the pale)
 
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I too was initially disgusted by this latest news. Made me want to open a small store front, staff with volunteers and a Model S and Model X. Give a big FU to the law makers and GM.

But then I thought about it and decided it isn't such a big deal at the moment. By far, the wealth of CT is concentrated in lower Fairfield County which is a relatively short drive to either Westchester or Mt Kisko, NY. That is where Tesla stores are located.

Tesla remains supply constrained, not demand constrained. We are a small state and opening a store in Greenwich and Milford would be nice but it's not such a big deal to drive to NY. Having a store in West Hartford would be helpful I'm sure.

With Model 3 seemingly sold out until 2020, I think we have time before this becomes a real issue.
 
wow as someone who wrote multiple letters to the senators I'm extremely disappointed this did not go to a vote.

I read the article linked above and other ones and don't really understand the evidence that GM alone was responsible for the bill dying. Saying they stepped up opposition isn't specific enough of a reason for me.
 
Which is probably why the vote didn't happen.
I'm not so sure about that. It's not uncommon for a bill's sponsor(s) to pull the bill if they determine that it will likely fail in the vote. This is so that when they take another run at getting the bill passed, they don't have to deal with "we already considered that bill and it was defeated" responses when they try to enlist support. This isn't always the pattern, but it's not uncommon. And Duff said they'll try again next year.

Note that the bill was already passed in the house. Those of you in CT now have some time to pin down your senators on supporting it next year when it comes up again.
 
I can't say I'm entirely surprised. When writing my first letter to my legislators I tried to think of clever arguments that would sway me if I were in their position and however rational they were (consumer choice, free market, environment, etc) I couldn't think of one that was better than the dealership argument: we give you money for agreeing with us and will support the other guy if you don't. Not enough people in CT care about this bill to oppose the dealerships.

I can also understand this position from the dealership perspective. Its not that they feel threatened by having to compete with Tesla, its that they are afraid their own manufacturers will follow suit and nix the need for them, the middleman. They know people hate them and would rather go to chevy.com and order their cars. This is a bit of a slippery slope argument but its compelling to them none the less.

Its a terrible situation that I'm not sure will be fixed by next year's bill. Makes me wonder what was different in NY where they did seem to get over this issue. At least CT is a small state and the NY store is just an hour away from me.

I think our only chance is Tesla becoming more mainstream. Everyone (and I mean everyone) I talk to about my model 3 reservation asks me why I didn't just go to Milford to order my Model 3. No one realizes selling Teslas is even illegal, never mind a bill like SB3 existing. Until that changes I fear similar bills will continue to fail. My guess is sometime around 2019 at the earliest.
 
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