Tesla Appeals to Michiganders for Help in Dealer Battle

It’s raining today in Marquette, Mich where four pieces of paper sitting on a desk are causing a small car manufacturer in California to sweat.

Palto Alto Calif.-based Tesla Motors is launching a last-ditch effort to fight house bill 5606 the only way it knows how: by appealing to people.  Michigan governor Rick Snyder has until Tuesday, October 21, to sign the bill, which is a piece of legislation originally intended to let automakers track fees that franchised dealers charge their customers. The bill, which would bar Tesla from selling cars in Michigan, passed both the house and senate and requires one man’s approval before becoming law. Trouble is, the language that would hurt Tesla wasn’t originally part of the document.

Tesla published a blog post today imploring Michiganders to contact governor Snyder and urge him to veto the bill in order to return it to the legislature for debate in 2015.

“Not content with enshrining their ability to charge consumers dubious fees, on the last day of the legislative session, the dealers managed to make a last-minute change to the bill in an attempt to cement their broader retail monopoly,” Tesla wrote in a blog post today.”

University of Michigan law professor Daniel Crane wrote a letter to Snyder’s office, saying “Most fundamentally, they should not be able to get away with sneaking amendments into bills at the last minute in a way that precludes fair and open discussion of what they know is a highly controversial issue.”

If Snyder signs the bill, Tesla says it would not only prevent it from opening a store in the state, but that it would also be barred from having one of its gallery locations that exist to market but not sell Tesla products. “We could even be barred from telling people about our car,” the Tesla blog post said.