Governor Rick Perry may be courting the Tesla Gigafactory, but so far his efforts to allow the electric automaker to sell its cars in Texas have fallen short. This hasn’t discouraged Elon Musk though, and Tesla is set to open its latest showroom in downtown Dallas, where salespeople can’t do much but explain what the Model S is all about.
That’s because Texas doesn’t allow Tesla’s direct sales business model, at least not yet. That means Tesla salespeople can only talk about the car, but not pricing, and they certainly can’t take you on a test drive. They can, however, direct you to the Tesla website, where you can play around with the Model S configurator and order a car for yourself.
From there though, Tesla has to ship the car to you via a third-party vendor, and also has to register the car in another state. It’s then up to you to re-register the car in Texas. There are also fewer repair options in the Lone Star State, as Tesla again has to hire third-party vendors to do the work, as Texas law prohibits them from fixing their own cars.
So what’s the purpose of the Texas gallery in the Northpark Center mall? Awareness, plain and simple. Now mall-goers will walk right past a Model S, and even have a chance to sit in one and see what all the fuss is about.
Eventually, Texas will get its act together and let Tesla sell its cars on the up-and-up…at least we hope.
