Read on Twitter
1/ A little background as to why GM (as opposed to other manufacturers) just sets me off. Maybe I'll get over it someday, but right now I continue to nurse a grudge towards GM & Mary Barra.
2/ Many of you know how involved I became in a number of state dealership battles over the years, where state dealership associations were working tirelessly to stop Tesla from selling in their state.
3/ What you may not have known is that 100% of those battles had GM's fingerprints all over 'em. GM lawyers. GM dealerships. Not Toyota, Ford, etc. Just GM.
4/ The one thing I've never been able to pinpoint is why GM got so involved in the state battles. It felt personal. Why wouldn't GM want to see the law busted up to allow them to sell direct, in addition to thru their dealerships?
5/ Why were they bringing their local dealerships to these various meetings to testify? Why their corporate lawyers? Why was GM sponsoring legislation in a number of states to change laws from 'mfr cannot compete with their dealerships' to 'mfr can only sell thru dealerships'?
6/ And lastly, it was totally classless for Mary Barra, when introducing the Bolt, to make a snarky comment of 'unlike other EVs, you can buy these in every state' since SHE WAS THE ONE STOPPING TESLA FROM SELLING.
7/ As I said, I'll get over this. I want their EV offerings to be successful. That benefits all of us. But yeah, I'm pretty pleased that I was a constant thorn in their side 'back in the day'. They didn't have to be so shitty.
8/ Sidenote: I've always thought that the dealership battles set up the whole 'us vs. them' environment - because it really was 'us vs. them' back then.
Sadly, the battles have changed now to toxic twitter keyboard warriorism, not effecting any real positive change.
Sadly, the battles have changed now to toxic twitter keyboard warriorism, not effecting any real positive change.
9/ Here's an example of GM's involvement in one state battle: https://twitter.com/bonnienorman/status/701209438363869184
