Sometime, in the not too distant future, the car dealers and their lobby groups will look back at this wishing they left Tesla alone. Tesla, barely a blip on the radar compared to the US auto market, selling its electric cars in malls wasn't a really big threat to their bottom line. Even in 5-6 years, selling a couple hundred thousand cars in the US, it would have only been an annoyance to the dealers at most.
While I am not an expert on the US constitution, from what I read from it, from what I understand of it, these local laws go against the very spirit of it - freedom of enterprise, freedom of commerce, freedom of the individual and all. I would not be surprised if pretty soon there would be a lawsuit on a federal level, demanding they rule such laws unconstitutional and make all of them shatter at once, overnight. One can understand special rules, restrictions around hazardous materials, pharmaceuticals, guns, but cars? As long as they meet the safety regulations enforced by the NHTSA and the like, a car is no different from other expensive consumer products.
If they just left Tesla alone, I doubt GM, Ford and the like would have gone against their established dealer networks, try to buy them out or build out a competing nation-wide network from nothing in the financial state they are in. But if these laws will crumble under a Supreme Court ruling, some may be tempted - which will be the beginning of the end for them.
