The nearest store is out of state
Louisiana still has no Tesla sales location. Residents who want to buy or lease drive to Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, or Florida, then haul the car home and title it as an out-of-state purchase.
A petition of Louisiana residents
Louisiana deserves a Tesla store.
Sign so Louisiana citizens can buy or lease a Tesla at home — without driving to Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, or Florida to do the deal.
0
of 10,000 signatures
No signatures yet. 64 parishes. One ask.
Nearest Tesla stores — all out of state
- Houston, TXGalleria · ~270 mi from Baton Rouge
- North Little Rock, AR~340 mi from Baton Rouge
- Brandon, MSJackson metro · ~170 mi
- Pensacola, FL~200 mi from New Orleans
Why this petition
We should not have to leave Louisiana to buy a Tesla.
Tesla does not use independent dealers. Every other major automaker does. That mismatch — not demand — is why there is still no Tesla dealership in this state.
Leasing and delivery are a maze
Tesla’s model is factory-direct. Franchise rules written for GM, Ford, and Toyota dealers make it illegal for Tesla to retail here. That turns a simple order into paperwork, extra travel, and lost sales tax.
Service is not the same as a store
A service center in the New Orleans area can work on cars Tesla already owns. Warranty repairs, test drives, and a place to actually buy or lease have been the fight — and the missing piece.
The lawsuit
Dealers did not sue Tesla for fun. They sued to keep the sale.
Tesla does not franchise. It sells online and through company-owned stores so it can explain electric cars without a salesperson whose living still depends on gasoline inventory. Almost every state has some version of a dealer-franchise statute. A handful, including Louisiana, went further and banned manufacturer-owned retail altogether.
The 2017 Louisiana law was the wall. It was sold as consumer protection and a defense against “vertical integration.” In practice it protected existing new-car dealers from a company that has never had a Louisiana franchise to protect. Tesla could open a service bay. It could not legally sell you the car, lease you the car, or, for a stretch, even perform warranty work on a car you already owned.
That is the lawsuit: not a fight over whether Tesla is allowed to exist, but over who is allowed to take your money when you want one. The dealers said the old rules still apply. Tesla said a regulator made of its competitors is not a neutral referee. The Fifth Circuit agreed that claim was real enough to go to trial. Then the parties settled, and Louisianans were left where they started — looking at a map of stores that stops at the state line.
1930s
Franchise laws are born
Automakers pushed selling and service onto independent dealers. States then passed laws so a factory could not open its own store next door and undercut the franchisees it had created. The point was to police a manufacturer that already had dealers — not to freeze the retail model forever.
2017
Louisiana writes Tesla out
In June 2017 the Legislature amended the dealer code (La. R.S. 32:1261) to bar manufacturers from selling or offering to sell a new vehicle directly to the public, and from doing warranty work on cars they do not own. The Louisiana Automobile Dealers Association had every reason to want that language: Tesla’s stores would take the sale without paying a local franchisee.
2022
Tesla sues
Tesla, Tesla Lease Trust, and Tesla Finance sued in federal court in New Orleans. Defendants included the Louisiana Automobile Dealers Association, individual dealers, and commissioners of the Louisiana Motor Vehicle Commission. Tesla’s case: the commission is stacked with competing dealers who used state power to keep a rival off the lot.
2023–24
Dismissed, then revived
The district court threw the case out. On August 26, 2024 the Fifth Circuit reversed on due process — Tesla had plausibly alleged a biased tribunal, because a board of dealers has a financial interest in blocking a direct-sales competitor. The antitrust claim was sent back. The equal-protection claim stayed dismissed under rational-basis review.
2025
A quiet settlement
In July 2025 Tesla, the state, and dealer groups told the court the claims were “fully and finally resolved.” Settlement terms were not made public. It is still not clear that Louisiana law now lets Tesla operate a true sales and lease store. That is why this petition exists.
Add your name
Sign if you live in Louisiana.
We are asking the Legislature and the Motor Vehicle Commission to let Tesla operate a sales and lease location in Louisiana — the same right every other car company effectively has through its dealers. Goal: 10,000 residents.
- You sign with your full legal name, street address, and year of birth — stored as your own declaration, not published. We keep those private fields only while the petition is running, then delete or anonymize them. We will not sell them.
- Public roll: first name, last initial, city, and parish only.
- TeslaInLA does not notarize, does not check voter rolls, and does not vouch for anyone’s identity. You stand behind your own name.
- One signature per name and ZIP.
The roll
No one has signed yet
The public list stays empty until a Louisiana resident signs. Be the first.
No names on this list. Sign above and yours will be the first.
Questions
Is this an official Tesla page?+
No. TeslaInLA is a citizen petition. It is not affiliated with Tesla, Inc., the Louisiana Motor Vehicle Commission, or any dealer group.
Why can’t Tesla just open a regular dealership?+
Tesla has never used independent franchised dealers. Louisiana’s 2017 law forbids a manufacturer from selling new cars directly to the public. A “Tesla dealership” here would have to be a Tesla-owned store — exactly what that statute was written to stop.
Who filed the lawsuit?+
Tesla filed in 2022 against dealer groups, individual dealers, and Motor Vehicle Commission members. The dealers did not need to invent a new theory: they already had a statute. Tesla argued the commission, made up of competing dealers, used that statute to lock it out.
Did the 2025 settlement open a store?+
The parties told the court the case was resolved. The terms were not published, and the 2017 statute was not clearly repealed. Until a Louisiana sales location exists, residents still have to go out of state to buy or lease.
What happens with my signature?+
Full legal name, street address, year of birth, and your typed electronic signature are stored as your own sworn declaration. They are not shown on the public wall. The wall lists first name, last initial, city, and parish. We keep those private fields only while the petition is operated, then delete or anonymize them. We will not sell, rent, or trade them. TeslaInLA does not notarize signatures or match them to the voter roll. You are responsible for the truth of what you sign.