Tesla currently started this strategy of owning its dealerships because they believed that typical dealers would not correctly represent and truly try to sell electric vehicles. Many people have said that dealerships of companies that sell EVs as well as ICE vehicles have been uninterested in selling EVs. (This was my experience at 2 different Nissan dealers when trying to buy a lease - they knew nothing about them, and probably only had on one the lot because the OEM pressured them to take one. This is not
always the case, but I have heard this from numerous others).
That said, this strategy is several years old now. If Tesla wanted to enable franchises, it could do so if it thought that to be strategically the right move. Some policies that would make this possible could be:
- Require that the dealership be exclusively Tesla, and not handle any other brands (Mercedes does this).
- Require that the dealership live up to corporate standards in all ways (done by many franchise corporations)
- Include in the contract that the dealership property reverts to corporate ownership if the franchisee becomes bankrupt (done by certain motel chains)
I did read the interesting quote: "As I understand it, if they open a single franchise anywhere, they come under franchise laws in a bunch of places, and have to start operating like a traditional car manufacturer, which increases their costs while decreasing their flexibility."
There is a certain logic to this, but it doesn't really seem right, because franchise laws are state laws, and differ between states. More likely, the thinking is that if Tesla did allow franchises anywhere, that it would hurt their chances in the US Supreme Court case, which is where I am sure at least one of the pending Tesla lawsuits against the states will be headed.
