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Tesla bill opponent in CT: ‘I don’t see the need to advance Elon Musk, who is already ruler of the world’

On Tuesday, April 26, the opposition to legislation that would allow direct sales of electric vehicles discussed the ongoing efforts to pass the so-called “Tesla bill” in Connecticut.

The proposed bill would conflict with Connecticut’s franchise law which requires car manufacturers to sell their products through third-party dealerships. The United Auto Workers (UAW) union, CT car dealers, and Senator Julie Kushner presented their arguments against the Tesla bill at the conference.

“I’m really a strong believer that we need to move to electric vehicles, and I think we’re doing that on many levels in the state, and I see the car manufacturers are moving in that direction as well,” said Sen. Kushner, a Danbury Democrat.

“I don’t see the need to do a Tesla bill. I don’t see the need to advance Elon Musk, who is already, you know, ruler of the world,” the Senator added.

Despite its nickname, the bill would allow any vehicle manufacturers without an existing presence in the state to sell vehicles directly to customers. Most automakers who would benefit from the dubbed Tesla bill would be EV manufacturers, like Tesla and Rivian.

Opponents of the Tesla bill also argued that it would undermine Connecticut’s consumer protection laws. Plus, they pointed out that direct sales could affect the jobs of nearly 14,000 employees in car dealerships, alluding to Tesla’s aversion to unions.

Tesla Fremont Factory employees are not unionized, which has received criticism in the past. However, in April, Elon Musk showed he was not opposed to unions. He invited the UAW to hold a union vote, adding: “Tesla will do nothing to stop them.”

The President of UAW Local 259, Brian Schneck, highlighted that franchise laws have been in place for decades across the United States. Connecticut’s franchise law has been around since 1972. Schneck argued that EV manufacturers like Tesla could simply choose to follow franchise laws rather than push for direct sales in each state.

Rivian explained why the franchise dealer system would not work with its business model.

“The franchise dealer system simply will not work for Rivian’s business model, where vehicles are made-to-order and we’re ramping our production,” Rivian spokesperson Leslie Hayward told CT Insider.

“As a company, we are innovating on not just the product, but also the customer experience. Furthermore, we know that the vast majority of the EVs sold in the United States are via direct sales — this is no coincidence,” Hayward added.

Tesla boss Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter, saying he is the right person to "unlock" the social media platform's "extraordinary potential".
In a surprise announcement, Mr Musk said he would pay $54.20 a share for Twitter, valuing it at about $40bn.
It recently emerged that Mr Musk was Twitter's biggest shareholder after he built up a large stake in the firm.
He said that if his offer was not accepted: "I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder".
Mr Musk also said that if the board of directors at Twitter chose to reject the offer, it would be "utterly indefensible not to put this offer to a shareholder vote".
"They own the company, not the board of directors," he wrote in a tweet.
Twitter's share price rose jumped by 5.3% to $48.32 in early trading, before falling back to more than $46.20 later on.
A filing with the US financial regulator appeared to show text and/or voice messages from Mr Musk to Twitter's board, showing that he had raised the idea at the weekend that the business should go private.
Mr Musk had been invited to join the board, but Twitter announced on Sunday he had decided against it.

Tesla has been raising prices - but that hasn't seemed to dent demand for its electric cars.
Despite the firm facing higher costs, profits at Elon Musk's electric car company soared to $3.3bn (£2.5bn) in the first three months of the year, as customers proved willing to pay more.
The firm's deliveries were up 68% - and would have been higher if not for supply chain shortages, the firm said.
Its Shanghai factory was also recently forced shut due to Covid restrictions.
As the plant reopens this month, staff will be required to sleep at the factory in an effort to avoid further lockdowns, Bloomberg has reported.
"Although limited production has recently restarted, we continue to monitor the situation closely," Tesla said as it shared quarterly results with investors.
Tesla has been pushing to expand, opening new factories in Texas and Germany in recent weeks.
The firm delivered more than 310,000 cars in the first three months of the year and in a conference call, chief executive Elon Musk predicted the company would produce 60% more cars during the year as a whole compared to last year.
Tesla doesn't advertise its products, but attracts frequent headlines, often related to controversial comments made by Mr Musk.
But the firm said that it had also seen spikes in orders following increased marketing from rival electric car makers.
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Mr Musk said Tesla expects to mass produce a robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals by 2024.
While Tesla shares rose more than 5% in after-hours trade, following the strong results, some investors worry Mr Musk may be distracted from his focus on the electric carmaker as it expands.
Mr Musk, known for his sometimes erratic musings on Twitter, recently made an unsolicited offer to buy the social media platform for $43bn.
The rise in Tesla's stock market value in recent years has made Mr Musk the world's richest man, with an estimated net worth of more than $260bn.
That is nearly $100bn more than his closest rival, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.