As Governor Greg Abbot makes a push to sing the praises of Texas businesses this week, he’s also made a big statement about which business will not be coming to Texas: Tesla.
In an interview with Bloomberg radio, the governor said:
“Texas has a very robust, open, very effective automobile sector that seems like it’s working quite well the way that it is. If you’re going to have a breakdown in a car, you need to have a car dealership there to make sure that the vehicle is going to be taken care of. We haven’t seen that from Tesla.”
Bloomberg Radio attributed this opposition against Tesla’s no-dealership-model to the strong dealership lobby in the Lone Star State.
While Teslas may not be for sale in Texas, reporters for EverythingLubbock.com have seen Teslas and other electric vehicles driving around Lubbock.
According to Randy Christian, Marketing Director for McGavock Nissan of Lubbock, many Nissan Leaf owners in the South Plains charge their vehicles at home.
Christian said of Lubbock Nissan Leaf customers, “they pretty much know that Lubbock is lacking in charge stations, I’m not aware of any public ones in Lubbock so most purchase at-home charging stations.”
Even without public charging stations, Christian said that the Leaf is very popular with McGavock’s customers.
Some choose electric cars to be environmentally friendly, others like avoiding high gas prices.
“We seem to see a little bit more intense interest in electric cars in relationship to the price of gasoline. So when gas prices went up– I think it was this time last summer–when gasoline prices were pretty high, we had a lot of interest in the car, ” Christian said.
The Nissan leaf can run around 100 miles on a charge;Teslas can run a couple hundred miles on a charge. Christian said that the cost of a charge runs at about three dollars.
“I think you’re going to see more and more electric cars (in Texas), especially when the technology ups the mileage per charge,” Christian said.
The McGavock dealership has two charging stations and Christian added that anyone with a Nissan Leaf can drop by for a charge.