LANSING – Governor Rick Snyder signed a bill Tuesday that electric vehicle maker Tesla Motors said will prevent it from setting up centers where it can market its vehicles to potential Michigan customers.

But in signing the bill, which was backed by the Michigan Auto Dealers Association, Snyder also said the topic of whether automakers should have the ability to sell directly to customers should be a top priority for the Legislature when it reconvenes in 2015. Under the previous and new law, auto manufacturers can only sell new vehicles through franchised dealers.

Snyder insisted that HB 5606 (PA 354, immediate effect) was a virtually inconsequential change on that front.

“I’m not sure why people call it the Tesla bill,” he told reporters Wednesday. “It’s basically a bill that reaffirms that it wasn’t legal for direct sales of autos in Michigan. It just strengthens the language, it doesn’t change what the law is.”

However, the issue from Tesla’s perspective was not direct sales – their officials acknowledged Michigan law was unfavorable to them – but the ability to open marketing centers where potential customers could learn about the technology in the vehicles.

The bill (HB 5606) was off the radar screen as a relatively innocuous change involving document fees at dealerships, but saw a late – and unnoticed by seemingly everyone except those aware of the amendment – change that Tesla said short-circuited its discussions with the Department of State about opening a marketing center where potential customers could learn about the technology in the vehicles.

Under previous Michigan law, which requires new vehicles to be sold at franchised dealerships, Tesla already would have been unable to actually sell vehicles at such stores, like the one it has set up in Massachusetts.

The Michigan Auto Dealers Association, which backed the change, has said the amendment represents a simple clarification to existing law and ensures the continuation of Michigan’s system of new vehicle sales taking place at franchised dealerships.

Messages left with both the Michigan Auto Dealers Association and Tesla Motors were not returned.

Now the question is whether Snyder will embrace the idea of direct sales in 2015 (if he wins re-election) and whether he can persuade a Legislature that historically has shown bipartisan support for the auto dealers to act as well.

“We should always be willing to re-examine our business and regulatory practices with an eye toward improving the customer experience for our citizens and doing things in a more efficient and less costly fashion,” Snyder said.

Snyder also signed the following bill:

HB 5273 , PA 355 TRADE SECURITIES (Jenkins) Authorizes and regulates local stock exchanges for transactions Michigan securities that will be used in Crowd Funding transactions.

The Michigan Investment Markets (hence ?MIMs) legislation introduced by Rep Nancy Jenkins as a compliment to the Michigan MILE investment crowdfunding legislation. MIMs will allow secondary market trading of MILE securities, meaning that equity deals now have a market where shares in Michigan MILE projects can be bought and sold.

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