Tesla opens a center on Native American land, selling cars straight to consumers
This is a great example of the problems with the precise wording of laws.The intent of the NM law that prevented Tesla from doing this e.g. in downtown Santa Fe was to prevent manufacturers from undercutting dealers who had done the work of proving a market by opening their own stores in direct competition. There are arguments for and against this, but it's not clearly a completely stupid idea on its face.But of course, the law wasn't written to deal with a scenario where there's a new(ish) manufacturer that has no dealers anywhere, least of all in NM, and has no plans to ever have dealers. It only sells its cars in company-owned stores, and opening a new store is not undercutting any existing dealers.Would the legislators who voted for the legislation have understood the difference if the idea had been presented to them back when this was passed? Would they have worded it differently?