It took the hope of Tesla Motors building a manufacturing plant in Texas to get Governor Rick Perry on board with the electric car company’s effort to sell its product directly to customers. But Perry’s there now, according to this report just posted by Robert Wilonsky. Last year, Tesla tried to get an exception to state law that strongly protects car dealership franchises from direct sales by manufacturers.
In the which-state-will-land-Tesla’s gigafactory bracket, we’ve got four contenders: Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas. Tesla is currently unable to sell its vehicles directly to customers in Texas. Each state is eager to land the $5 billion factory and the 6,500 highly desirable manufacturing jobs that come with it. “I think it’s time for Texans to have a very open conversation about this and talk about the pros and the cons,” said Texas Governor Rick Perry in a conversation Monday with FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo. “I’m going to think that the pros of allowing this to happen are going to outweigh the cons.”
