Business

NY dealers have Tesla ban in sights

Memo to billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk: The Empire State could be next.

New York’s auto dealers are pressing state lawmakers to ban the direct sale of cars, a move made earlier this week by Gov. Chris Christie’s administration in New Jersey.

Car dealers in New York said they hope to ban Tesla’s direct-sales method as soon as this summer, sources told The Post.

If it happens, New York will become the sixth state to ban or limit direct sales from Musk’s popular electric-car company, Tesla Motors.

“My hope is that we are going to be the next state,” Mark Scheinberg, president of the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association (GNYADA), told The Post on Thursday. “I feel confident.”

The move by Christie provoked Musk’s ire this week because it requires carmakers to have franchise agreements and sell their autos through independent dealers.

Musk blasted New Jersey’s ban, saying that the state’s auto dealers were “subverting democratic process to try to block Tesla sales.”

Musk might return fire with a lawsuit, some industry experts speculated.

Several states, including Texas, Arizona and Virginia, have banned or curbed Tesla’s ability to sell cars directly, amid fears of similar sales tactics by manufacturers from China and India.

A flood of bans could force Tesla to rethink its sales strategy or risk damping its rapid-fire sales, which pushed the stock up more than 350 percent last year. The share price climbed 58 percent in 2014. The stock closed Thursday at $237.79, down $3.70.

In New York, the battle against direct car sales is being waged via a second front: the courts.

GNYADA is also appealing a New York court ruling last April that tossed the group’s lawsuit against the New York Department of Motor Vehicles.

The group accused the state DMV of breaking existing laws by giving Tesla approval to sell its own cars.

The dealerships are open to compromise, said Bob Vancavage of the New York State Automobile Dealers Association — but he doesn’t think the outspoken billionaire Musk will give even an inch.

“I think a lot of billionaires got there by being a certain way,” Vancavage said. “He’s not used to people saying no.”