Toyota Invests in Artificial Intelligence as a Road to Autonomous Cars
$50 Million in Programs at Stanford and MIT While Silicon Valley seems awash in autonomous Google cars and Carlos Ghosn says Nissan will have an … Read more
Tesla Tops Another Top 10 Green Cars List
AAA Names Diverse Top 10 Green Cars & Trucks Another day, another Top 10 Green Car list. While many of these lists might be linkbait … Read more
Elon Musk on the Near Future of the Autonomous Car
The first quarter of 2015 may be a watershed time for Tesla Motors.
Top 10 Stories of 2014
Here at Clean Fleet Report we had a great year, seeing and reporting to you on a record number of cars, trucks, SUVs and even some two-wheel fuel-efficient vehicles.
Top 10 High-MPG Cars’ Sales in 2014 (August check-up)
Electric Cars, Plug-Ins Electrics, Diesel Sales Look Good Two-Thirds of the Way Though the Year August sales reports are in and the Nissan Leaf set … Read more
Welcome To the New MPG Clubs
We live in amazing automotive times. The best testaments to that are the three new “MPG clubs” that we’re introducing at Clean Fleet Report.
Best Electric Cars and Plug-in Hybrids for 2014
Toyota, Ford, and Tesla have intensified the battle for electric car leadership. How will U.S. electric buyers vote with their pocketbooks for electric cars? See the list of Best Electric Cars and Plug-in Hybrids for 2014.
Top 10 Best-Selling High-MPG Cars of 2014 (January-March)
While overall sales languished a mere 1.3 percent above the first quarter of 2013, high-mileage electric cars, plug-in hybrids, and clean diesels continued a torrid pace similar to what they were experiencing during most of last year. The only laggard in this group was gas-electric hybrids, which dropped almost 16 percent compared to last year, based heavily on declining sales of several Prius models.
Texas Dealers Stymie Tesla
Tesla Motors, seller of the much desired Tesla Model S, is no foreigner to the realm of legislative battles. Within more than a few states, including New York and North Carolina, Tesla has managed to win lawsuits and prevent blockage of their non-dealership sales technique, resulting in more of the electric luxury cars on the road than ever.
Unfortunately, Tesla seems to have hit a wall in Texas.
Tesla Battles With Dealers and State Legislatures
Tesla has set out from the beginning to challenge everything in the auto industry. Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk characterizes himself as an outsider selling a an electric car the auto industry has said it couldn’t build or sell and he set up a network of dealers and chargers all owned by his company. The vertical integration might be something a founding titan like Henry Ford might have appreciated, but it has run into problems in 21st century automotive retail business world.
The issue is state-by-state franchise laws, which set up the conditions for the retail sale of automobiles. They have a long history, rooted in protection for local businesses against potential predatory practices by the deeper pockets of a factory-owned store. Consumer protections are also a part of the franchise system, in theory guaranteeing local recourse for any issue a consumer might have with a product that could have been produced on the other side of the globe.
Tesla argues that the model, like the auto industry itself, is dated and not reflective of new world of electric cars and online ordering. In addition, Tesla says as a start-up it poses little threat to larger, established dealerships and as a purveyor of online pure electric cars, it needs factory control to ensure the educational message about this new technology is fully transmitted.