Tesla asserts the right to sell cars directly to consumers before the US Federal Trade Commission
Oldsmobiles in Indianapolis, 1971 (Photo: Alden Jewell)
This Tuesday, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has convened a panel of experts on automobile manufacturing and automotive marketing. The goal is to discuss whether a car manufacturer can supply its products to customers without intermediaries.
The discussion was attended by representatives of Tesla Motors and Elio Motors.- a company that is going to produce inexpensive triple cars. These companies believe that new car manufacturers should not obey the requirements of the dealership model for marketing their products. Tesla has always had problems with this model of work, because the company wants to work directly with customers, and dealers in various states lobby their interests. In some cases, Tesla is even prohibited from working at the state level, as happened in New Jersey, Texas, West Virginia. Interestingly, representatives of the US FTC supported Tesla, urging the meeting participants to review the rules for selling cars to customers.
Representatives of the other side argued that the model of working with dealers is good, because it allows brands to compete with each other at the right level. In addition, this model allows you to be sure that various car dealers of the same brand will not compete with each other in the same city.
According to Tesla, the company is still too young, and its products are little known to consumers. And here difficulties arise, since the same dealers are not too interested in selling little-known cars, the commission of which, moreover, is not too high. Sellers have to talk a lot about what an electric car is and how good it is. When the buyer comes to the salon where cars with ICE are sold, the majority are already aware of what a regular car is and what are the differences between different models.
“As a result, our customers have been studying the car for a long time. All this takes many hours, and only we can afford it - ordinary dealers do not have that much time, ”says a Tesla representative.
He also said that he considers it impossible to sell electric cars through a franchised network of dealers. The problem is that such a network will earn by raising the cost of the car, and this Tesla cannot allow - no one will buy an electric car.
At the same time, the company cannot use the model for selling phones by Apple. It’s one thing to deliver phones, and quite another car, Tesla official said during the discussion. The costs are simply disproportionate - for the delivery of something that weighs many hundreds of kilograms, it takes too much effort and money.
Discussions of car sales schemes to consumers are increasingly frequent. And on the side of Tesla becomesthe same Federal Trade Commission. Unfortunately, she only recommends making changes to modern car sales schemes, but Tesla hopes that the company will be able to avoid the usual work scheme and launch its own representative offices in most US states.