Reprinted from Automotive News
A bill that would have allowed electric-vehicle maker Tesla Motors Inc. to sell cars at its factory-owned showrooms in Arizona appears to be dead in the state’s Senate.
The bill won’t make it to the floor for a vote this session, which will end in about a week, Arizona Senate Majority Leader John McComish told The Wall Street Journal. This means it would be another year at the earliest before new legislation could be debated.
Bobbi Sparrow, president of the Arizona Automobile Dealers Association, said the bill’s likely failure will not affect the state’s bid for a massive new Tesla battery plant.
“I don’t think legislators thought that if they passed or didn’t pass the legislation that it was going to have anything to do with the battery factory,” Sparrow said.
A Tesla spokeswoman could not be reached for comment.
Of the four states Tesla is considering for the factory -- Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas -- two of them, Texas and Arizona, ban direct vehicle sales to consumers.
McComish told The Journal that the legislation’s likely failure doesn’t help the state’s chances to land the battery plant.
Tesla has said the factory is estimated to cost about $5 billion and ultimately employ about 6,500 people.
Sparrow did not speculate on Arizona’s chances to get the battery plant, but said that Tesla’s “PR firm was trying to link that argument into the legislative session.”
“I think Tesla will put their battery factory right where they wanted it from the beginning,” she said. “It had nothing to do with what was passed in any state.”
“If it’s collectively believed that the smartest place to put a battery factory is in Arizona, then they’ll do so,” she said.
The news comes nearly a week after Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill that allows Tesla to continue operations in the state and expand beyond its two stores in Seattle and Bellevue.
Last month, New Jersey passed a regulation requiring new-car dealers to get franchise agreements in order to receive state sales licenses. Arizona, New Jersey and Texas have laws that require the use of franchised dealerships in the states.
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