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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Tesla Repurposes Native American Casino To Build Showroom, Skirt New Mexico Auto Sales Laws

Courtesy of ZeroHedge View original post here.

Nothing says ESG investing and furthering humanitarian causes more than exploiting Native American land to open up a car showroom and duck local regulations. Just ask Tesla.

The automaker reportedly has opened a sales, service, and delivery center on Native American land in New Mexico in order to get around legislation that bars automakers from selling vehicles directly to consumers, according to a new report from Insider

Nambé Pueblo in Santa Fe County is exempt from the law and, as a result, consumers can test Teslas on-site and owners can bring their vehicles there for service. New Mexico has 1,846 registered Teslas, with 361 in Santa Fe County, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican. 

It is the first Tesla delivery and service center in the state. Prior to it opening, residents of Santa Fe would have to take their vehicles to El Paso, Texas, which is about 300 miles away. 

Tesla repurposed a defunct casino to open the center. 

"We are proud to be the first tribe to have Tesla on Indian lands," Phillip Perez, the governor of Nambé Pueblo, said. He continued: “It was a cooperative effort between Tesla and the pueblo. It didn’t take long to come to terms. We are doing our part to protect Mother Earth," the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.  

A New Mexico-based Tesla owners club has been clamoring for a sales and service center in the state since 2015.

The center "changes everything for owners" and is a "gigantic thing for New Mexico," Brian Dear, President of the club, said. He continued: “The comparison up until now is to get your car fixed, you had to think of hotel reservations and possibly a multiday stay. You didn’t get a reservation for Thursday or Friday because they may not get to your car and then you would have to stay into the next week.”

Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, was critical of the current laws in place prohibiting direct sales. He told the SFNM: “These are licenses to print money. If you have the Ford dealership in Santa Fe or Albuquerque or Las Cruces, you’re guaranteed to have a nice living because [customers] have to come to you; they can’t go anywhere else. It’s not exactly a monopoly because there could be two dealerships in one community, but they limit the franchises so that they maintain highly profitable relationships with their franchisors.”

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