Tesla sells its electric cars directly to customers, but car dealers in many states in the U.S. don't want to face the competition of direct sales of new cars. This is a crucial issue for Tesla, whose business model depends on direct sales. One Tesla stockholder has petitioned the White House to prevent states from forbidding the direct sales.

So far, Tesla is able to legally sell new cars (like the Tesla Model S pictured above) directly to customers in every state except Texas. However, there's movement among states such as New York and North Carolina to make it complicated or even illegal to sell cars directly to the public. Third-party car dealers don't want direct sales to interfere with their business.

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Politicians in state legislatures are helping the organizations behind car dealers (such as the National Automobile Dealers Association, or NADA) to implement this legislation, effectively protecting them from the competition from a car company like Tesla.

Tesla doesn't have the overhead of local car dealerships, giving it a competitive edge that dealers and their friends in state legislatures don't want. But more intense competition from companies such as Tesla could further stimulate car dealerships to make their prices more competitive, making all cars less expensive.

The car dealers claim that their existence prevents the giant car manufacturers from colluding on prices, which would make car purchases more expensive for everyone. However, when Gerald R. Bodisch of the U.S. Department of Justice studied the "Economic Effects of State Ban on Direct Manufacturer Sales to Car Buyers," he found that the current business model of third-party car dealerships made cars more expensive for consumers.

To fight this state-by-state prohibition of Tesla car sales, a stockholder in the company known as K.S. from Stow, Mass., started a petition on June 5 on the White House "We the People" site, asking the president to "allow Tesla motors to sell directly to consumers in all 50 states."

Says the paragraph accompanying the petition:

States should not be allowed to prevent Tesla Motors from selling cars directly to customers. The state legislators are trying to unfairly protect automobile dealers in their states from competition. Tesla is providing competition, which is good for consumers.

So far, the petition has received 24,783 signatures, far short of the 100,000 signatures needed by the deadline of July 5, 2013, a mere eight days away when this post was written.

Would you sign such a petition? Do local car dealerships need to be protected from companies like Tesla?

Photo courtesy Tesla Motors