Ron DeSantis has signed a law banning automakers from selling cars direct to consumers in Florida – but it contains a carve-out that will benefit his political backer Elon Musk and his Tesla company.
House Bill 637 requires most automakers to sell to Floridians through third-party car dealers, who sometimes add exorbitant markups to vehicles’ sales tags.
Drafted by lobbyists for dealers, who have made substantial donations to DeSantis, the law could have been a big blow to Tesla owner Elon Musk, who hosted his glitchy presidential campaign launch on Twitter.
Tesla cuts out the middleman by operating its own dealerships. Forcing it to use third-party franchises would have undermined its business model.
Conveniently for Musk, however, language was added to the new law exempting automakers without existing franchise agreements from its requirements. While Tesla is the chief beneficiary of the carve-out, other upstart electric vehicle makers such as Rivian, which sells direct to customers online, could also benefit.
