Car dealer lobby sues new EV brands to ensure you have a bad time buying them
Car dealers, who have long been a roadblock in the rollout of EVs in the US, are continuing with their old tricks and filing lawsuits against new spinoff EV brands, like Sony Honda’s Afeela and VW’s Scout, which had hoped to extricate themselves from the dealership model.
Ever since the beginning of the EV revolution in the US, car dealerships have been a thorn in the side of progress.
Across the US, there are laws requiring automakers to sell cars through franchised dealerships. These laws originate from the early days of the automotive industry, when they also allowed car companies to scale their sales networks much more rapidly in the early days of the car boom in the US. And after setting up these franchises, it wouldn’t be particularly fair for automakers to be able to come in and undercut them, so the cat is sort of out of the bag at this point.
In their most optimistic portrayal, they also ensure that repairs are readily available across the country, that competition for sales helps keep prices down, and that manufacturers can’t throw their weight around and unfairly control the market.
But as is the case with most legislatively mandated middle-men, it hasn’t all been rosy. Every American knows that the car purchasing process is time consuming, hostile, full of tricks and of dealership personnel who have much more interest in earning a commission than in providing accurate information about the model you’ve come in asking questions about. Car dealers are routinely ranked as among the least-trusted profession in America (with the second-lowest positive trust rating, behind lobbyists, in this year’s Gallup survey).
Worse, when it comes to EVs, car dealers are often ignorant or outright hostile, and this pattern has been consistent (though slowly improving) for the more than a decade since EVs have been available to the US car buying public. Many EV purchasers have permanently sworn off dealers as a result of the comparatively better experience they’ve gotten when purchasing vehicles from one of the EV startups like, Tesla, Rivian or Lucid.
But the dealer lobby has long caused difficulty for these startups. Despite each of these being new companies with no franchised dealers, certain states have laws disallowing them from selling car on their own. They need to seek loopholes or ship in cars from out of state in order to sell cars over the internet, and dealerships keep lobbying to change laws to make it more difficult for new companies. There is a long and complicated history of these disputes.
And just like every objectively good thing in today’s world, the EV/dealership battle has taken on a political angle, with the party that’s only interested in doing bad things unsurprisingly choosing to do bad things in this case as well. (And, oddly enough, the bad CEO of the largest EV company in America gave hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to the party which wants to eliminate EVs – and which is allied with the Tesla’s most significant enemy over its history: the auto dealers).
But the dealerships’ opposition doesn’t just end at startup EV brands – they’re now voicing their opposition to EVs from large manufacturers’ new spinoff brands, and the opposition might end up being even more fervent in this case.
Dealers take legal action against spinoff EV brands
Recently, both Honda and VW have come out with spinoff EV brands which they hope will help them attract the EV consumer who has realized the benefits of internet purchasing and isn’t interested in going back to a dealership. These brands, Sony Honda’s Afeela and VW’s Scout, have both announced they’ll be building their own sales networks.
Car dealers aren’t happy with this. The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) said it would challenge VW in court over the decision to sell Scout vehicles directly to consumers. And the California New Car Dealers’ Association (CNCDA, also the source of Electrek’s favorite quarterly EV sales breakdown) sent a cease-and-desist letter to Honda in May, and has now filed a formal lawsuit against Honda seeking to block sale of its upcoming Afeela vehicle, which will be available in California (only) starting next year.
CNCDA’s complaint says that not only does the decision to go direct to consumer violate the trust between Honda and its dealers, but that it also violates a new 2024 California law, which was sponsored by the CNCDA and opposed by Honda, which CNCDA says stops automakers “from using affiliated brands to compete with their own franchised dealers.” CNCDA says that the Sony Honda Mobility joint venture should count as an affiliated brand of Honda.
The argument may be stronger in this case than it is against the startups. EV startups never had a franchised dealer network to begin with, so they aren’t unfairly competing against dealerships that they had previously granted a license to.
But that’s not the case for VW and Honda. Both of these car companies have franchised dealers, and now a subsidiary of theirs, or a joint venture, or whatever-you-want-to-call-it, wants to compete against those dealers.
Well, sort of, anyway. They wouldn’t be selling the same car as those other dealers, as the Afeela and Scout would only be available in direct-to-consumer form, and presumably other VW and Honda vehicles will still exist and be sold at dealerships.
We’ll have to see if that argument works in front of the courts. But it looks like we’re in for many more years of the same sort of legal wrangling we’ve seen from dealerships – instead of any sort of effort to improve the EV buying experience on their part.
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Tesla has unexpectedly terminated a contractor’s contract at Gigafactory Texas, resulting in the layoff of 82 workers who were supporting the automaker’s production at the giant factory in Austin.
MPW Industrial Services Inc., an Ohio-based industrial service provider specializing in cleaning and facility management, has issued a new WARN notice, confirming that it will lay off 82 workers in Texas due to Tesla unexpectedly ending its contract with the company.
Here are the details from the WARN notice:
- State / agency: Texas Workforce Commission (TWC).
- Notice date: August 27, 2025.
- Employees affected: 82
- Likely effective date: September 1, 2025
- Context from the filing/letter: layoffs tied to an unexpected termination of a major customer contract (Tesla—Gigafactory Texas, 1 Tesla Road); positions include 61 technicians, 7 team leads, 7 supervisors, 7 managers; no bumping rights; workers not union-represented.
In April 2024, Tesla initiated waves of layoffs at the plant, resulting in the dismissal of more than 2,000 employees in Austin, Texas.
Since then, Tesla’s sales have been in a steady decline. While the automaker is expected to have a strong quarter in the US in Q3 due to the end of the tax credit, sales are expected to decline further in Q4 and the first half of 2026.
Many industry watchers have expected Tesla to initiate further layoffs due to the situation.
Electrek’s Take
We may be seeing the beginnings of a new wave of layoffs at Tesla, as the automaker typically starts with contractors.
To be fair, Tesla could also potentially end the contract unexpectedly for other reasons, but the timing does align with the need to cut costs and staff ahead of an inevitable downturn in US EV sales.
I think it’s inevitable that we start seeing some layoffs. I think Tesla will have to slow down production in the US to avoid creating an oversupply, especially in Q4-Q1.
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First, it was e-bikes, offering an efficient, effective, and low-cost way for teens and just about everyone to zip around town, yet drawing the temper of suburban traditionalists. Now golf carts are the new public enemy number one in suburbia, at least if you ask the growing number of online groups where residents complain about these small electric vehicles “clogging” their streets.
But beyond the hand-wringing, golf carts and their more sophisticated cousins known as Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) or Low Speed Vehicles (LSVs), are quietly becoming a popular alternative to cars for short trips around US cities and suburbs.
While most people still associate golf carts with retirement communities in Florida or slow rides across 18 holes, street-legal versions have been around for the last few decades.
But these aren’t your grandpa’s bare-bones carts, complete with a golf pencil clip. Many now come with DOT seat belts, lights, turn signals, mirrors, backup cameras, and speed limiters that allow them to operate legally on roads up to 35 mph, as long as they meet all the federal requirements for Low-Speed Vehicles (LSVs).
That means such vehicles are legally allowed to operate like cars, trucks, bicycles, or motorcycles on the vast majority of residential streets and a surprising portion of urban grids. In other words, for grabbing groceries, school drop-offs, or cruising to a friend’s house, they’re a practical, cheaper, and far greener substitute for firing up a 5,000-pound SUV.
Golf carts have been slowly taking off for years, but the pandemic accelerated the trend. Sales of golf carts and LSVs spiked as families looked for safe, outdoor transportation and an easy way to get around their neighborhoods. Now, in cities all over the country, the sight of parents driving their kids to school or running errands in a cart is increasingly common. In some towns, petitions have even popped up with hundreds of residents asking for local ordinances to legalize them on more streets, according to the Daily Mail.
Of course, not everyone is thrilled. There’s growing backlash against the increase in golf carts on streets, with many residents calling them a “plague” and complaining that they’re taking up space on the roads, in parking lots, or creating unsafe conditions. While rare, there have been serious accidents too, with a handful of tragic cases highlighting the dangers of mixing small, lightweight carts with full-size vehicles. Critics argue that carts lack the crash protection of cars and don’t always fall under homeowners’ insurance policies if an accident happens.
But for every critic, there’s a supporter pointing out that golf carts take cars off the road, save money on fuel, and are no more dangerous than scooters or e-bikes – modes of transport that already share the streets. And major golf cart makers have been happy to respond to the demand with boosted sales and new models. Companies like E-Z-GO, Club Car, WAEV, Kandi, and others are all rushing new models to the market as more suburban commuters discover that their next electric vehicle might just cost a fraction of what they thought it would – and come with a better breeze, too.
Electrek’s Take
If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it’s like the Karens are just following me around to poo-poo on any alternative vehicle I happen to drive that week. They’ve hit all my favorites. Pretty soon, they’ll be coming for my electric tractors, too!
But seriously, this feels like déjà vu. The same arguments we’ve heard for years against e-bikes are now being recycled against golf carts: too unsafe, too disruptive, too “different” from the car-centric status quo.
But the reality is, again, quite the same as e-bikes. These are small electric vehicles that make a ton of sense and are totally street legal, at least when they’re built correctly to conform to the proper laws.
They come with a lot of the same benefits, too. They’re cheap to operate, easy to park, perfect for short trips, and they prevent larger cars from needlessly clogging residential streets. Will they ruffle feathers among the kind of folks who have had one too many frisbees land in their yard? Perhaps. But much like e-bikes, their popularity is only going one direction – up.
I leave you with a few images of perhaps my favorite of all, the Kandi Mini. The nay-sayers can pull it from my cold, dead, golf
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With 400 hp and 200 km (125 miles) of all-electric range, Volvo’s new-for-2026 XC70 “long range plug-in hybrid” has made its official debut – and the order books are open. But, unfortunately for American fans of Swedish metal, it’s not available here. Yet.
Volvo first teased the new XC70 as a China-only model back in May, resurrecting an iconic name for the brand and representing an important product addition to the lineup and developed to meet the growing demand for longer-range plug-in hybrids in that market. A lot has changed since then, however – and with the looming threat of tariffs and trade wars on the one hand plus an increasing appetite for EREVs and PHEVs globally and a new CEO at the helm, Volvo’s new XC70 may yet make it to other markets.
“The new XC70 is a very attractive choice for customers who want the benefits of electric driving but are not yet ready to go fully electric,” explains Håkan Samuelsson, new new/old president and chief executive of Volvo Cars. “It is a cornerstone of our electrified product portfolio, a bridge to fully electric cars for our customers, and it will strengthen our presence in the world’s largest car market.”
The new XC70 is built on Volvo Cars’ new Scalable Modular Architecture (SMA) platform for plug-in hybrids, which are intended to deliver the environmental and performance benefits of electric drive with the added flexibility of an ICE backup.
With 20-30 miles of electric range from a relatively small battery, that promise may ring hollow to many – but with 200 km (nearly 125 miles) of range on tap, it feels like it might be real enough this time out. The company claims its “efficient” allows drivers to drive over 1,200 km (nearly 750 miles) without recharging or refueling.
Active aero trickery
Part of those big range numbers is battery and engine tech, sure – but another large part is the new Volvo’s aerodynamic efficiency. At the front, a shield-like closed grille that echoes the fully electric Volvo EX90 and EX30 is paired with an active grille shutter (above) that automatically adjusts to minimize drag and optimize cabin climate and cooling.
Meanwhile, the vertical C-shaped taillights at the rear are integrated flush into the rear glass, which Volvo says creates “a sleek, modern look that is both eye-catching and functional.”
Tech-focused interior
Inside, the new XC70 presents a tech-first format, feturing a crisp 12.3″-inch” driver display and a laptop-sized, free-standing 15.4″-inch” central display in a horizontal format that allows the driver to view a large navigation map while still having space for other key functions.
It’s an odd move for the Swedish brand that’s already facing criticism over software bugs. Still, its hybrids have fared better on that front than the EX90, and the XC70’s standout feature — a massive 92-inch augmented reality heads-up display — could deliver that “wow factor” that’s needed to win over any doubters.
On the safety front, the new XC70 is riddled with radars, cameras, and sensors to continuously monitor its surroundings and avoid or mitigate collisions when it can. It also comes equipped with with Volvo-standard safety features like BLIS and City Safety.
For a relaxed driving experience, the XC70 also offers Pilot Assist ADAS Park Pilot Assist, as well as active navigation support.
Production of the new XC70 is already underway and the new long-range PHEV is now available to pre-order in China. No word yet on European (or American, here’s hoping) pricing.
2026 Volvo XC70 gallery
SOURCE | IMAGES: Volvo Cars.
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