Tesla employees work on a Model S cars in the Tesla factory in Fremont, Calif., Thursday, May 14, 2015. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott made it clear this week that he wants nothing to do with the electric car company, Tesla, entering the Lone Star States economy.
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Abbott told Bloomberg Radio earlier this week that the Texas auto sector is working just fine the way it is and does not need Tesla.
Texas has a very robust, very open, very effective automobile sector that seems like its working quite well the way that it is, Abbott said in the radio interview. If youre going to have a breakdown in a car, you need to have a car dealership there to make sure that the vehicle is going to be taken care of. We havent seen that from Tesla.
Abbotts comments got Michael Ballaban of car blog Jalopnik particularly fired up, questioning if the Texas governor knows what hes talking about when it comes to Tesla.
Ballaban had few problemswith Abbotts comments on the Texas automobile sector. But he argues that Abbotts comments on Tesla and its repair services makes the governor look like an idiot.
That verbal garbage isnt remotely correct, Ballaban writes. You dont need a traditional franchised dealership to get your car repaired. Tesla, in fact, has three service centers already open in Texas, with two more on the way, to help out owners in the Lone Star State who managed to get their hands on one of the all-electric cars.
Tesla has been trying for years to get state laws changed across the country allowing itto sell vehicles without a dealership. The company has attacked Texas in particular, mostly due to the fact that it is the nations second-largest automobile market for two years.
And better yet, a dealership and service center thats directly controlled by the company, in theory, may allow for better customer service with greater oversight from Teslas corporate headquarters. So theres that.
Texas is home to Tesla showrooms, or galleries as the company calls them, which is the case at NorthPark Centerin Dallas where shoppers can marvel at the high-end electric vehicles but cannot buy one on the spot. It is instead an education center of all things Tesla, as we wrote in 2014.
Tesla Motors new gallery at NorthPark Mall in Dallas, pictured on June 18, 2014, will open on Friday June 20, 2014. Tesla Model S vehicles start at around $70,000. (Michael Ainsworth/The Dallas Morning News)
Ricardo Reyes, a spokesman for Tesla, told Bloomberg the company has four maintenance centers in Texas that have earned high marks for service. He said doing business in the state is a matter of when, not if.
We look forward to working as a business in Texas, he said. Its just a matter of time.
But as Ballaban points out, the state and the company couldnt be on more opposite sides of working together. And because of that we all lose.
Let people buy Teslas in Texas, Ballaban concludes. For Freedom, Free Markets, And Other Things That Are Free.
Source: http://bizbeatblog.dallasnews.com/2015/07/writer-gov-greg-abbott-is-an-idiot-when-it-comes-to-tesla-in-texas.html/
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