Rivian continues to sell its electric vehicles directly in Ohio

Rivian has brought legal action in Ohio to be able to sell its electric vehicles directly to state consumers – the last swing in a perpetual struggle between emerging American car manufacturers and the rooted and powerful concessionaire.

Business continued the registrar of the Ohio motor vehicle office (BMV) Monday before the Federal Court, saying that the state harms consumers by blocking direct sales. Rivian is currently able to sell electric vehicles directly to consumers in 25 states and, in the BMV of Washington DC Ohio, did not immediately respond to a request for comments.

“The prohibition of OHIO of the business model only of direct sales is irrational to the extreme: it reduces competition, decreases the choice of consumers and increases the costs and disadvantages of consumers – which harms consumers – without any compensatory advantage”, wrote lawyers in the complaint.

Rivian asks the court to authorize the company to request a concession license so that it can sell vehicles directly. Ohio customers must buy from Rivian vehicles in locations of other states where direct sales are authorized. The cars are then shipped to Rivian service centers in Ohio.

Allowing Rivian to sell directly did not run through a new legal ground, the company supports in its complaint. Tesla has a license to sell in Ohio since 2013 and can sell directly to consumers.

What stops Rivian is a 2014 law adopted by the state’s legislature. This law, which, according to Rivian, came after an intense lobbying effort of Ohio Automobile Dealers Association (OADA), actually gave Tesla a sculpture and prevented future manufacturers from acquiring the necessary dealership licenses. (Oada did not immediately return a request for comments.)

“The choice of consumers is a principle of foundation of the American economy. The archaic prohibition of Ohio against direct sales of vehicles is unconstitutional, irrational and prejudice to Ohioans by reducing competition and the choice and conduct of costs and disadvantages,” said Mike Callahan, administrative director of Rivian, in a press release.

Rivian has already won legal fighting on direct sales. In 2021, Rivian and Lucid Motors obtained concession licenses to sell electric vehicles in the state of Illinois. The association of dealers of this state continued to try to block Rivian and Lucid to sell directly, but Finally failed.

Lucid Motors, meanwhile, filed a separate prosecution in Texas in 2022 In a challenge to the ban on direct sales of this state. The court ruled against Lucid earlier this year, but the company appealed, according to the archives of the Federal Court.