The U.S. automotive industry has been selling cars the same way for over 100 years, and there are many laws in place to govern exactly how that is to be accomplished.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Automotive franchise laws were put in place decades ago to prevent a manufacturer from unfairly opening stores in direct competition with an existing franchise dealer that had already invested time, money and effort to open and promote their business.
Selling an electric sports car creates an opportunity to fundamentally change the way America drives.
You can't develop a great car and sell it as an independent. You can develop a great car and make a deal with Mercedes.
At Tesla, we don't go into a community and think we're going to sell one or two cars.
The automotive corporations, including Ford, I think are in the business of trying to make cars that people will drive.
We have to ensure politically that what's doable can indeed by translated into law, but what's not doable mustn't become European law. Otherwise, the auto industry will work somewhere with higher carbon emissions - and we can't want that.
Some companies out there quote a start of production that is substantially in advance of when customers get their cars.
When I was at BMW and Aston Martin, I realized how difficult and how many resources it takes to create a car - let alone a car company.
What I've seen around the world is if the regulatory desires are combined with things that affect consumer behavior - such as in Europe, they tax gasoline very heavily - you do get people to move to very fuel efficient cars; trade off bigger vs. smaller cars.
We don't sell a car, we sell a dream. We are Italy's national team. There are many great soccer teams in our country, but there is only one Ferrari.