Who is the GADA?

GADA represents approximately 500 franchised new car and truck dealers in all parts of Georgia.

What is GADA’s position on EVs?

Our dealers strongly support the development and deployment of electric vehicles (EVs) in Georgia. Many GADA dealers have been selling and servicing EVs for more than a decade. In fact, our membership includes some of the most successful EV dealers in the country.

Georgia auto dealers recognize and embrace that the automotive retail industry is changing. It is estimated that 100 new EV models will be available over the next three years. These EVs are being developed by established manufacturers and will be sold through franchise dealers.

But some new entrants to the market have suggested that franchise dealers cannot sell EVs, or do not want to sell EVs. Our dealers are ready, willing and able to sell any vehicle a customer wants to buy.

What are these bills hoping to accomplish?

The new bills would allow electric vehicle manufacturers to sell electric vehicles directly to consumers. The bills would allow manufacturers to control pricing for their vehicles and eliminate local price competition.

Why is this proposal a bad idea?

When franchise dealers compete for your business, customers benefit from competitive pricing and quality customer service. That is why you can almost always negotiate a lower price on a new car from a dealer and why there are thousands of highly trained, certified technicians throughout Georgia who will fix your vehicle, enforce your warranty, and resolve any recalls quickly and correctly. Ultimately, direct sales by manufacturers will mean dealerships closing and a loss of jobs for hard-working Georgians. These bills will also likely impact the jobs of more than 30,000 Georgians directly employed at franchised auto dealers in order to line the pockets of wealthy, out-of-state investors.

If any of the proposed legislation passes, it won’t just be dealers and their employees who suffer. Georgia citizens will pay more for electric vehicles than they would if sold through franchise dealers. They will also pay more for service, and there will be fewer, if any, repair facilities that Georgians who own directly sold EVs can access with convenience. This means warranty repairs and recalls could be delayed or denied.

Moreover, many of the economic benefits from these companies will not stay in Georgia, as they do with franchised dealers.  

How are these bills different from the legislation passed in 2015 that allows Tesla to sell directly to consumers?

The new bills are very different from legislation passed in 2015. The 2015 legislation was passed to address the electric vehicle market as it existed then and to give a startup electric vehicle company an opportunity to get its feet off the ground. At that time, the only other fully electric vehicle on the market was the Nissan Leaf, and there were virtually no electric offerings on the way. The 2015 legislation preserved the basic framework of the franchise system while at the same time allowing a startup manufacturer to operate a limited number of locations. If more than five locations are desired or needed due to demand, independent dealers would then be used. Unlike the 2015 legislation, the new bills do not have any such limitations that would preserve the benefits of the franchise system.   

These bills are not about making electric vehicles more accessible to Georgia consumers - they are about controlling pricing and every aspect of the consumer experience during the lifecycle of the vehicle. If the intention of electric vehicle manufacturers is to increase availability of electric vehicles, they would want to use a distribution system that reaches throughout the state. The proposed legislation is not about choices, it is about control. The bills are nothing more than a power trip.

Does the 2015 legislation allow Tesla to operate a monopoly over the distribution of electric vehicles?

Absolutely not. Other manufacturers, such as GM, Nissan, Volvo, and Audi now distribute electric vehicles in Georgia THROUGH their local franchised dealers who compete every day for the business of Georgia consumers. Electric vehicle manufacturers could easily distribute their vehicles and compete in Georgia if they wanted to do so. The proponents of the new legislation don’t want to use INDEPENDENT dealers who can negotiate prices and deliver value to consumers. Instead, the electric vehicle manufacturers behind these new bills want to control prices and every other aspect of doing business with Georgia consumers.

Will these bills cut costs by eliminating dealer “middlemen”?

No. The suggestion that allowing manufacturers to sell directly to consumers will eliminate middlemen and cut costs highlights a huge myth about how the retail automotive industry works. Dealers are not middlemen. They are customers of the manufacturers. Dealers buy their inventories from manufacturers and bear the costs associated with selling and servicing those vehicles. Allowing manufacturers to sell directly doesn’t eliminate those costs; it just shifts them from the dealers to the manufacturers, allowing manufacturers to control the pricing of vehicles and service. The end result is that costs stay the same, but consumers lose the benefit of having multiple sellers of the same product competing for their benefit.