COLUMBUS, Ohio and ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. — Tesla Motors is being targeted again — this time, not just by car dealers, but by a Southern California fire department.
The Columbus Dispatch reported today that a group of Ohio dealers have filed suit against the electric carmaker for allegedly violating state law after opening its first retail outlet in the state. The Ohio Department of Public Safety and Bureau of Motor Vehicles were also named as defendants in the suit.
Earlier this month, legislators in Ohio dropped an amendment that would have prohibited Tesla Motors from operating a dealership in the state.
“It’s incredibly hypocritical,” James Chen, Tesla’s vice president of regulatory affairs and associate general counsel, told The Columbus Dispatch of the lawsuit. “This is the same kind of bullying from the dealers we’ve faced in other states. The dealers, when they’re defeated in the court of public opinion, in the media and in the legislature, they then go to the courts.”
The Ohio dealers’ lawsuit surfaced on the same day a report by Reuters revealed that an overheated charging system in a Tesla Model S sedan may have caused a garage fire in Orange County, Calif.
The fire, which reportedly occurred Nov. 15 in Irvine, Calif., occurred as a result of an electrical failure in the charging system for an electric vehicle, fire officials told Reuters.
The news outlet explains the fire is unrelated to the three road fires in Model S sedans that occurred in the past two months.
