NAMBÉ, NM – Carmaker Tesla has for the first time opened a shop and repair shop on Native American land, marking a new focus on its years-long struggle to sell cars directly to consumers and eliminate car dealerships. cars.
The Tesla TSLA with white walls and silver letters,
, which opened last week, is located in Nambé Pueblo, north of Santa Fe, on tribal land that is not subject to state laws.
The electric vehicle company can only sell and service its vehicles freely in a dozen states, while facing restrictions in other countries. Some, such as New Mexico, prohibit Tesla from offering sales or repairs without going through a dealership. In January, the company struck a deal with Michigan to settle a 2016 lawsuit, a symbolic victory that allowed it to sell to the garden of the nation’s top vehicle manufacturers.
Tesla supporters say the New Mexico store is the first time the company has partnered with a tribe to circumvent state laws, even though the idea has been in operation for years.
From Oklahoma to Connecticut and other states, consumers cannot buy Teslas because the company does not partner with dealers and has failed to win courts or lawmakers to allow its direct sales model.
“These states have a lot of Native American sovereign nations that might be interested in Tesla,” said Brian Dear, president of the Tesla Owners Club of New Mexico. “I don’t think this is the last one at all.”
New Mexico, Alabama and Louisiana have the strictest bans, banning Tesla from both operating dealerships and repair shops. This makes repairing a Tesla more expensive and more complicated. Owners need to get their cars maintained in neighboring states or through Tesla technicians who fix problems with what they have in a van.
The Tesla store in New Mexico, built on the site of an old casino, is located between two gas stations along a road about an hour and a half north of Albuquerque, where most of the state’s Tesla owners live. , said Dear.
Although sales are banned in neighboring Texas (where the company plans to manufacture its vans next year), repair shops are allowed. Tesla owners in New Mexico have traveled to El Paso, Texas or other cities out of state to get repairs.
To buy a Tesla, they have to drive hours to pick them up or pay thousands of dollars to ship them.
“We drove a gas car (Volvo station wagon) to Denver and then I was the‘ lucky one ’who drove the gas car again,” said Howard Coe, a filmmaker who works for a lab in Los Alamos , New Mexico, about 30 minutes from Nambé and about five hours from Colorado’s nearest Tesla store.
Coe drove his wife’s Tesla sedan to Nambé’s new store on Tuesday to ask if an SUV he ordered could be delivered there. The store told him it does not accept deliveries in the foreseeable future and will not make repairs until the end of this month.
Tribal officials who negotiated the deal for a two-year period say it fits business interests and cultural values, such as caring for the environment.
The tribe “has a responsibility to the land where we have lived for more than 1,000 years,” said Carlos Vigil, president of the Nambé Pueblo Development Corporation, which called the Tesla service center “a renewable business that is adjusts to our belief system “.
Proponents of the car dealership say they respect the tribe’s decision, but expect customers to buy electric cars from companies that follow state rules, arguing that dealerships compete to lower prices and can service vehicles elsewhere. of the state.
“We have competition, we have experience, we are in your local communities,” said Ken Ortiz, president of the New Mexico Automobile Dealers Association. “We contribute to taxes.”
New Mexico has tax treaties with the tribe for the sale, gambling, and gasoline taxes. But tribal and state officials say it’s unclear whether Tesla will have to pay taxes on vehicle sales or how revenue would be split.
Tesla, which dissolved its public relations department and generally does not respond to media questions, did not respond to any requests for comment.
In response to a tweet complaining about waiting times in the northeast last month, CEO Elon Musk wrote, “Tesla will speed up service center openings.”