Tesla opened its only company store in Virginia near Tysons Corner in February 2015 but only after going to court and reaching a legal settlement with the DMV and the dealers association.

After Tesla sought permission from the DMV to open a second store here, the dealers group responded by producing letters from 11 auto dealers in the region who expressed an interest in selling Tesla cars.

The owners of five dealerships subsequently testified during an administrative hearing at the DMV that they would be interested in selling Tesla cars.

Thousands of pages of documents were submitted by both sides, and nearly 20 hours of testimony were given over three days before a DMV hearing officer in March, April and July.

Tesla argued that the independent dealers would be unable to make a profit from Tesla’s cars because the company sells them at fixed prices and dealer discounts or markups would not be available.

The DMV hearing officer recommended in September that Tesla’s request to open its own dealership be denied, concluding that the question of profitability was irrelevant to the law’s requirements.