OLYMPIA, WA – Tesla will remain the only electric vehicle manufacturer allowed to sell directly to customers in Washington.
That’s because legislation that would have put firms like Rivian and Lucid on equal footing with the electric carmaker failed to advance out of a House committee on Friday, the deadline for non-fiscal bills to be voted out of policy committees.
House Bill 1721, ran out of juice in the House Consumer Protection & Business Committee where Rep. Amy Walen, D-Kirkland, the chair, said it lacked caucus support.
“It went through the usual process. If I have the votes I bring it up. If I don’t have the votes, I don’t bring it up,” she said Monday.
The bill, sponsored by Democratic and Republican state lawmakers, would have revised a state law that prevents customers from buying an electric vehicle directly from the automaker and instead forces them to go through a dealership.
Tesla, founded and led by billionaire Elon Musk, is able to carry on direct sales in Washington due to an exemption obtained a decade ago. At that time, the company was the lone electric carmaker seeking access to the market. The company was neutral on the bill.
The proposed legislation sought to end the prohibition for others “while ensuring that traditional auto dealers are supported in transitioning to a zero emissions vehicle-focused market.”
But car dealers were strongly opposed, arguing their locally-owned businesses would lose sales and see connections with their communities weakened. They successfully blocked a similar effort last year.
Walen and her husband own a couple of car dealerships in Seattle. She said that was not a factor in the outcome.
“I don’t represent auto dealerships. I represent the people of the 48th Legislative District and the Democratic caucus,” she said. “If it was a caucus priority I would have supported it in some form. It needed a lot of work.”
A coalition of environmental and business groups, including Rivian and Lucid, pushed for the change, saying the bipartisan compromise would open the EV market wider for consumers and quicken the pace of sales.
“Legislators from both sides of the aisle know that our current ban on buying clean cars directly is bad for Washingtonians, bad for fair competition, and bad for our clean transportation goals,” said Mark Prentice, a spokesperson for the Washington Clean Car Choice Coalition. “But once again, the auto dealers and their allies in the Legislature stymied meaningful debate.”
Coalition members will keep talking with legislators on “a path forward for clean car choice” in the state, he said.
This story first appeared on Washington State Standard.