Utah Blocks Tesla Motors One Week Before Grand Opening

Tesla Motors has run into legal trouble in Utah. Just days before the grand opening of their gallery store in Salt Lake City, the state has denied the electric car company a dealer license. Tesla has run into recent legal trouble in Michigan, Connecticut, New Jersey and Georgia, however the timing of this legal clash with the state of Utah for Tesla, is unprecedented.

In a statement Jim Chen Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for Tesla was dissatisfied with this outcome. Chen said, “We’ve been brought to a screeching halt. It’s kind of ironic that we have a state that is welcoming innovation and clean energy and basically we got halted in our tracks.”

The office of Utah state attorney general, Sean Reyes, sent a letter last week to Tesla Motors telling them their license to sell cars in Utah is denied because they are not a franchised dealer. Kim Coleman, a Utah Republican lawmaker supports allowing Tesla into Utah. She told the Salt Lake Tribune, “It’s 2015. You can buy anything online. We’re about to drive a multimillion-dollar sales-tax-revenue base out of our state and we’ve rolled out the ‘unwelcome’ mat … so I think we need to change it.”

Craig Bickmore, executive director of New Car Dealers of Utah, spoke to the SLT about his support of the dealer model. He said,” If they (consumers) have a problem with their new car, he said, the dealer can act as an intermediary or advocate, rather than the customer having to go directly to the manufacturer.” Representative Coleman has proposed House Bill 394 Substitute New Car Sales Amendments, which would allow Tesla Motors to sell directly to consumers in Utah. The bill reportedly passed the state’s house business and labor committee earlier today by a vote of 7-5. We will keep you updated on this story as details continue to become available.