On August 23, 2015, I founded the Tesla Owners Club of New Mexico, with one purpose: fight for a change in the state law that protects the franchise dealer monopoly on sales and service in New Mexico. Six days later, on the 29th, we held our first meetup event, at the Jinja restaurant in Santa Fe. 12 people attended; we all sat around a long group of tables that the restaurant had pushed together.
The 12 of us discussed the law, how we could get it changed, and during the conversation the idea of "well why doesn't Tesla just put a service center and store on tribal land?" That idea was so brilliant, I was so excited by it, I quickly reached out to Tesla to schedule a call with the corporate development and policy people at the company. That led to multiple long calls over a few weeks, and then Tesla suggested I do some research on the idea. So I wrote up a report with maps, photos, etc of various locations that seemed to make sense from an owner's perspective, and submitted it to the company. The company kind of stewed on it but decided to continue to pursue the legislative fight.
So for the next four years I worked with Tesla, and many many state senators and state representatives to push for bills that would change the restrictive, protectionist laws and enable--hasten, really--the adoption of electric vehicles by companies like Tesla which did not use franchise dealerships. We held hearings, we had committee meetings, we had club members show up for events, offer legislators rides in our cars, we tried everything. But by 2019 it was clear there was just too much political pressure on the state government from the dealers and other interests like Big Oil, to get a bill through.
All along we owners continued to urge Tesla to look at the tribal alternative. They finally began to look into that. We were largely in the dark for the next two and a half years as Tesla canvassed the state for a tribal partner. They found one in the Nambe Pueblo. The result was announced yesterday.
Never again will Tesla owners in New Mexico have to plan indefinite hotel stays hundreds of miles away in other states while their car is serviced at some remote service location. Yesterday afternoon I used the app to schedule a long-deferred service appointment for my car (squeaks and other things) and the app showed the new local service center and I got an appointment! Yeah, baby. Never looking back.
p.s. The Tesla Owners Club of New Mexico now has 536 members and is growing fast. http://tocnm.org