NJ CAR President Laura Perrotta was quoted in a Politico story posted earlier this afternoon regarding Senate President Nicholas Scutari’s introduction of a bill (S4750) that would repeal Tesla’s special exemption to sell directly to consumers.
Check out the full story below:
Scutari targets New Jersey’s Tesla sales exemption in new bill
by Matt Friedman | 10/06/2026
New Jersey’s most powerful state legislator is seeking to repeal a law that allows Tesla and other electric vehicle manufacturers to sell directly to customers instead of through dealerships.
Senate President Nick Scutari introduced the “New Jersey Franchised Automobile Industry Retail (FAIR) Sales Act” without fanfare on Monday.
The legislation, NJ S4750 (26R), would roll back a law signed 11 years ago by Gov. Chris Christie in response to protests from Tesla CEO Elon Musk that allowed Tesla to sell cars at a limited number of showrooms.
Tesla had already been selling its cars directly to customers at showrooms in New Jersey when the Motor Vehicle Commission in 2014 passed a rule requiring electric cars be sold through franchised dealers. For decades, New Jersey has forbidden traditional carmakers from selling through anything but dealerships.
New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers President Laura Perrotta in a statement called Scutari’s proposal “common sense,” saying it eliminates a loophole that creates “special rules” for electric car companies. She said that when the law was passed, those companies represented less than 1% of car sales. By 2025, they made up 11%, she said.
“A decade ago, when electric vehicles represented less than one percent of vehicle sales, an EV‑only manufacturer may have needed flexibility to introduce consumers to an emerging technology,” she said. “What may have been justified as a temporary accommodation for an emerging technology should not become a permanent competitive advantage.”
Scutari did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the bill does not cite a justification for ending the electric vehicle exemption.
But Musk’s politics have changed drastically since 2014. He has become President Donald Trump’s most powerful backer and has poured millions into races to boost Republicans. Musk has also supported far-right parties overseas and amplified white supremacists and their views on his social media platform, X. Tesla’s Cybertruck has even become a symbol of right-wing political affiliation.
Scutari is not the first lawmaker to propose ending the electric vehicle exemption, but he’s by far the most powerful one.
In 2025, Democratic Assemblymembers Heather Simmons and Luanne Peterpaul introduced a bill, NJ A5604 (24R), to eliminate the so-called Tesla exemption. Months earlier, Musk had twice performed a salute during Trump’s inauguration that resembled one commonly used by the Nazi Party. (Musk denied it)
At the time, Simmons told POLITICO that Musk’s politics were not behind her proposal.
“Ten years ago, when this law was enacted … it made sense, because Tesla was the only manufacturer doing EVs and it was an effort to bolster electric vehicles in New Jersey,” Simmons said. “It doesn’t make sense now, when multiple manufacturers deal in EVs, and they’re the only ones who have the opportunity right now to bypass the dealership model. That’s not fair. Let’s level that playing field.”
New York Democratic state Sen. Pat Fahy proposed a similar bill last year, and he was not shy about it being a response to Musk’s politics
“No matter what we do, we’ve got to take this from Elon Musk,” Fahy told. “He’s part of an effort to go backwards.”
Since Scutari just introduced the legislation, it’s not clear what its prospects are. But the support of the state’s top lawmaker makes it less likely to languish than the thousands of other bills that are introduced every year.