Tesla Virginia

In the more-than-year-long saga of Tesla trying to open a dealership in Virginia, the auto dealers have just scored a victory (and consumers have taken a defeat), with a judge allowing the Virginia Auto Dealers’ Association (VADA) lawsuit against Tesla to proceed.  Tesla had argued that the VADA was not an “aggrieved party,” but a judge in Virginia ruled on Monday that they are and that they thus have standing to bring the lawsuit against Tesla.

This ruling does not stop Tesla from opening the store this summer as planned, but may force them to shut down after opening if VADA’s suit is successful.

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Richard D. Holcomb, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner, has pretty good timing. Just a few days after an embarrassing video of the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association (VADA) promoting a lobbying effort against Tesla getting a dealership license in the state came to light (and has since been removed), the commissioner ruled in Tesla’s favor.

He overturned a previous decision from a hearing examiner blocking Tesla from obtaining a dealership license in response to pressure from local car dealers claiming that they could sell Tesla’s vehicles in the Richmond area, where the company was trying to open a store. You can read the new decision in full below.
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