On Friday state senators in Colorado passed a bill allowing electric vehicle makers like Rivian to sell directly to consumers. For auto dealers, the most controversial part of the bill was removed. This provision would have allowed automakers with franchised dealerships to compete directly with their dealer-owned stores. The revised bill allows automakers to own, operate or control dealerships if the automaker produces only electric vehicles and has no franchised dealers of the same brand. Clearly, this allows automakers like Tesla and Rivian to sell direct to consumers. But what about automakers like GM which recently announced the Hummer brand would return as an all-electric vehicle brand. Currently there are no Hummer dealers. Does that mean GM can launch Hummer and sell direct to consumers in Colorado? What about Volvo’s Polestar brand? Might this be a way for traditional automakers to launch all-new electric vehicle brands and sell the electric vehicles of those brands direct to consumers while bypassing the dealer network of their other brands? If so, I wonder if Colorado dealers really knew what they were agreeing to.
Colorado Approves Factory Direct Electric Vehicle Sales
