Tesla Mulls Plan B After House Bill 7097 Fails to Come to a Vote

The Connecticut Legislature failed to bring HB 7097 to a vote despite a poll conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and released by Tesla showing, 74 percent of Connecticut voters support legislation authorizing manufacturers like Tesla to open brick-and-mortar stores in Connecticut. The poll, which surveyed 500 Connecticut voters likely to participate in the 2018 election, also found that 49 percent of respondents would be less likely to support state legislators who opposed such legislation.

According to an article in the New Haven Register, Tesla was considering increasing the number of galleries in the state to 10 if HB 7097 ended in failure. This would increase Tesla’s presence in the state beyond the current single gallery, in Greenwich. Locations under consideration include; Norwalk, Westport, Fairfield, West Hartford, Danbury, New London, Hartford, New Haven and Bridgeport.

Tesla’s existing investments in Connecticut include a Service Center in Milford, a gallery in Greenwich, five Supercharger stations and 27 destination chargers across the state. Last Friday, Tesla opened the largest Supercharger station to date on the East Coast at the Connecticut Post Mall in Milford. The company plans to open eight additional Supercharger stations and up to 25 additional destination chargers throughout Connecticut by the end of 2017.

Image – By John Cummings – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37553049