NJ Turns Up Nose at the Musk of Tesla

Little Known Fact: In his spare time Elon
Musk is Iron Man, but with less alcoholism.

Tesla Motors is well named, and I don't think even they realized how appropriate their moniker was until they tried to do business in New Jersey. As Nikola Tesla was once exploited and cheated by Thomas Edison on the soil of Menlo Park, Tesla Motors has now found itself betrayed by the New Jersey Government on the carpeted floor of the State House.

Last week, my home state, New Jersey, banned automotive manufacturers from selling their products directly to customers, a move which seems almost exclusively aimed at Tesla who had secured an agreement with the Governor to put the issue to a vote in the Legislature (a vote that would have went in favor of Tesla). Instead, a decision was made in the State Motor Vehicle Commission that now makes the transactions illegal. The ban will go into effect on April 1, 2014. The NJMVC made a statement that all they were doing was reaffirming an already existing sanction, and that it was done for the "protection of the consumer." (However, the website for the re-branded DMV makes no mention of the rationale for the decision or how it will protect the consumer. Actually it doesn't even reference the decision at all, just important information, like the results from "Operation Facial Scrub.")

Kevin Roberts of the Governor's office further released a statement saying, "Since Tesla first began operating in New Jersey one year ago, it was made clear that the company would need to engage the Legislature on a bill to establish their new direct-sales operations under New Jersey law. This administration does not find it appropriate to unilaterally change the way cars are sold in New Jersey without legislation and Tesla has been aware of this position since the beginning." Because you know... every time a company wants to sell any product in New Jersey the burden is obviously on them to draft and a pass a law that allows them to do so. Or else it will be  the Self-Tanning Spray Debacle of 1986 all over again.

Whether such a rule of law existed previously to Tesla setting up shop in places, like the Garden State Plaza or the Short Hills Mall, I can't speak to, but whether the law is new or old it still makes no sense to me. If you are going to ban automotive makers from selling directly to the consumer than why not do it with bicycles, computers, hairbrushes, car tires, or any of the other hundred thousand thousand thousand products we use everyday. I mean if adding a middle man to the process is really for the customers protection, than why is Exxon Mobile allowed to drill oil in the Middle East and then sell it to me directly through their gas stations? Why aren't there gas dealerships too?

Maybe because this sort of law seems less about the protection of the consumer and more about the protection of those very self-same oil companies and car companies. Especially in the light that Consumer Reports rated the Tesla Model S top overall pick of any vehicle in the world, scoring 99 out of 100. On the other hand, Ford models only average about a 50 and BMW a 60. So how can this ruling be for the consumer's protection? It's not about quality, and it shouldn't be about price as we live in a free market society? Don't we?

You see gas companies and car companies, (despite their ad campaigns,) still aren't on-board with this whole, alternative energy "thing," because it is still cheaper to make gasoline fueled cars than electric ones, like the Tesla models. This means producing electric cars would cut into the profit margins of major car companies, and a large chunk of the profit margins of the oil companies. Also electric cars actually run longer and require less regular maintenance than gas powered automobiles, which means car companies lose out on the service end as well.

Tesla sells their cars directly to the consumer so they can control how their cars are being sold. Elon Musk explains it better in his blog post, "Auto dealers have a fundamental conflict of interest between promoting gasoline cars, which constitute virtually all of their revenue, and electric cars, which constitute virtually none. Moreover, it is much harder to sell a new technology car from a new company when people are so used to the old. Inevitably, they revert to selling what’s easy and it is game over for the new company." Thus if Tesla were to do business like Ford or Chrysler their cars would find themselves left in the back room to rot away with the Fiskers and DeLoreans.

Tesla store at the Garden State Plaza in Paramus, NJ. The store will
become a "gallery," after the MVC decision takes effect on April 1, 2014.

Granted Tesla cars range between $60,000 and $100,000 (putting them well out of my price range,) but that is not unreasonable, considering that the car gets more than 200 miles between recharges, and doesn't cost you a cent on gas fill up. The Tesla cars are the type of science fiction vehicles that the world has been waiting for, yet we still cling to our oil powered lifestyles, but why? Because companies like Exxon, Ford, BP, and others have a vested interest in not seeing companies like Tesla succeed. They would rather we stick to the gasoline guzzling instead of taking a leap forward to cutting down our bills and cutting down our pollution. That translates to lobbyists in the halls of our government doing everything short of electrocuting animals to make sure that those in power side with them instead of Tesla. Musk is not failing because he has a sub-par product, he's failing because his company have no money greasers in the State House.

New Jersey residents will still be able to purchase Tesla Motors vehicles online at www.teslamotors.com, and the actual purchasing of the cars is not the issue. It is the general frustration of such a blatant corruption. This sort of cronyism will be our downfall, because the men and companies with the biggest wallets always seem to win. They always seem to get the ear of those in charge before the little guy ever has a chance to even speak. More than anything this is what angers me, and millions of Americans like me. Government once again sides with the corporation, the bank, the business, and the conglomerate over the citizen and over common sense. The worse tragedy of all is that we don't even blink anymore. 

This kind of corruption of the system has become so commonplace that we expect it and tolerate it. The trains still run, the food still gets eaten, my doctor still over charges me on my co-pay, and life goes on, but what if it didn't? Despite what most people think, societies don't collapse because of one big thing. They collapse because of a lot of little things, feathers on the camel's backs. Rome didn't fall because it was invaded by barbarians (some of which were my ancestors,) it fell because political corruption and apathy led to a decay in the system. The only people that really destroyed Rome were the Romans and their own willingness to accept the selfishness and short-sightedness of their leaders. Sometimes I can't help but see parallels to those times and now.

Much like the under-appreciated Serbian-born inventor, the man behind Telsa motors has found his ideas road-blocked by corporate greed and insider tactics, not just in New Jersey, but all over the country. Elon Musk is incredibly ambitious. He has made this first feasible electric powered car, he has sent rockets to space, but his greatest accomplishment would be to cut through the corruption and red tape that surrounds the government. Only then will we all truly be able to move forward, but he shouldn't have to do it alone. We should all take part in demanding that this sort of systemic corruption be put to an end. Only then will we start to see the true potential of our future. I am sick of having selfish corporate interests put ahead of the betterment of all. After all, if we truly live in a free market society then don't limit Tesla. Let them compete fairly.