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CT Dealership said “direct sales EVs like Tesla are a very small percentage of the vehicles sold”
A Connecticut dealership employee said at a planning and zoning meeting that “direct sales EVs like Tesla are expensive luxury vehicles and they are a very small percentage of the vehicles sold.” The dealership employee who made that claim works for Hoffman Auto Group.
This is a follow-up to our earlier report that Tesla cut ties with South Windsor after siding with the local dealerships.
Tesla was looking to purchase a new location for a new service center and gallery. In this area, Tesla would complement stores such as Apple. All Tesla would need the town to do is adjust the zoning laws to allow car sales and service.
The South Windsor, CT Facebook page shared a live stream of the meeting and you can watch the replay here.
Dealership sales rep: “Direct sales EVs Tesla are a very small percentage of the vehicles sold”
Tyrrell Dabrowski, sales director at Hoffman Auto Group could be seen laughing at around 1:30:10 which is when the statement about Hoffman suing towns was read aloud.
He also spoke beginning at 1:58 into the meeting. In his speech, he claimed that Tesla owners can’t get good service. I’m not sure if he was boasting or actually taking himself seriously about this since Hoffman Auto Group is blocking Tesla from serving its customers.
“The Hoffman Auto Group, you know, we’re committed to defending the dealer franchise system because it provides the consumers with benefits and protections.”
Dabrowski added that the dealer franchise system “keeps prices low by fostering fair and healthy competition on a level playing field. Direct sales by manufacturers is not necessary for the rapid introduction of EVs in the State of Connecticut. Direct sales EVs like Tesla are expensive luxury vehicles and they are a very small percentage of the vehicles sold.”
Other Dealership Testimonies
Mitchell Sealing Ford testified that Tesla is terrible and illegal. And the Connecticut Automotive Retailers Association claimed that Tesla is trying to sell vehicles in South Windsor which is illegal.
Unfortunately for Tesla, the change was voted down and the location is dead. It’s another win for dealerships–especially those who are spreading misinformation.
Hoffman Auto Group’s Claim Debunked
The claim that direct sales EVs like Tesla are only luxury cars and make up a small percentage of sales is highly misleading.
Tesla is not only the global EV leader, but during the first half of 2022 alone, Tesla delivered 564,000 vehicles which represented a growth increase of 27% year-over-year.
During Tesla’s Q2 2022 earnings call, Elon Musk said that he is confident that Tesla would be able to get to 5,000 cars a week in Austin and Berlin by the end of this year.
“There’s always a lot of uncertainty like the production looks like S-curve, and that intermediate part of S-curve the difficult to bridge that with high certainty. But the end part of the S-curve, you can say, I think you can have a lot more certainty.”
“And so that’s why I’m confident we’ll get to 5,000 cars a week at — in Austin and Berlin by the end of this year or early next year and probably but not certainly, 10,000 cars a week at both locations by the end of next year.”
Statement from Tesla Owners of Connecticut
The Tesla Owners Club of Connecticut shared the following statement with me in an email:
“Unfortunately, once again Tesla was kicked to the curb. Legacy dealerships have an awful reputation. South Windsor didn’t want to open up pandora’s box to any dealership coming into this beautiful part of their town. “
“It was painful to listen to the dealer’s disparaging testimony. Their backward thinking and anti-competitive remarks will lead them to bankruptcy eventually. “
My Previous coverage of Hoffman Auto Group & Tesla
When I wrote for CleanTechnica, I extensively covered the ongoing drama that Hoffman Auto Group caused.
- In June 2021, Hoffman Auto Group sued Tesla and the Town of East Hartford because they didn’t want Tesla to sell to customers.
- In June 2021, Hoffman’s Bradley Hoffman told Senator Haskell, that dealers have spent millions on charging stations and solar panels. I replied to him on Twitter asking him to share where he got that information from. He never replied.
- In August 2021, East Hartford approved the Tesla Service Center—but that didn’t last for long.
- Once the Tesla service center was approved, Hoffman sued Tesla.
- In September 2021, I wrote about why dealerships don’t want to compete with Tesla.
- And in March 2022, I reported on East Hartford ruling in favor of Hoffman and other dealerships regarding Tesla and its new service center.
- My interview with Senator Will Haskell
Tesla is about to make parking in busy parking lots at businesses and other points of interest less stressful than ever by allowing drivers more control over where they park and how, CEO Elon Musk confirmed on X.
Tesla has been working to improve the parking performance of vehicles utilizing the Full Self-Driving suite, but now it is looking to add more customization, allowing drivers to choose the specific space they park in, but also potentially the orientation the car pulls into the spot:
It’s coming soon
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 21, 2026
Musk has reiterated on X twice over the past several weeks that Tesla is working to make things with the FSD suite based more on the driver’s specific preferences and behaviors that were seen in past drives.
Essentially, it sounds like if you tend to park away from a business to avoid other vehicles, Tesla FSD will soon recognize that preference of yours and start parking further away as well. Additionally, the prospect of assigned parking spaces has been something many owners have voiced concerns about.
Living in a community with assigned parking spaces makes using FSD incredibly difficult as it will rarely park in the correct spot when there are so many to choose from. This is also pertinent in work settings where there are sometimes assigned parking spaces.
The updates to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite in terms of listening to driver preferences with parking are also extending to routing. Tesla announced yesterday that with the release of its 2026 Summer Update, it was adding Automatic Navigation and Preferred Routes:
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
Tesla has always maintained the idea that any human input is bad input, and that, ideally, Tesla Full Self-Driving will always make the right decision. Of course, this is all in theory, but the issue is that so many of Tesla’s interventions have come because it does something that is not necessarily wrong, but perhaps not what the driver would prefer.
Taking these preferences into account will help Tesla alleviate some of the potentially unnecessary interventions that drivers perform.
Tesla is starting to prepare for the launch of the Optimus robot in its smartphone app, new coding strings show. Elon Musk has referred to Optimus as what will be the greatest-selling product of any kind of all time, and now, Tesla is getting ready for its launch.
Tesla’s smartphone app had several first-time mentions of the Optimus program, according to Tesla App Updates, who intially reported on the appearance. Here’s what they found:
A Dedicated “Robot” Phone Key Authentication
Tesla is working on a Bluetooth Low Energy, or BLE, authentication that is specifically for robots. This does not only apply to Optimus, though, as Robotaxi, which is Tesla’s autonomous ride-hailing platform, might also identify vehicles within the fleet as robots as well.
Tesla shows rapid teardown of Model S and X lines, paving the way for Optimus at Fremont
Essentially, pairing your phone as a key to anything Tesla identifies as a robot to a “whitelist” of authorized devices. Optimus, Robotaxi, or other products that fall into this category will only respond if the device trying to communicate with it is authorized.
This is a great security feature that will eliminate at least face-value and low-level threats.
Home Data Collection and System Alerts
This appears to be somewhat of a neural network for Optimus within your house. There will be a dedicated screen that asks for consent to collect both video and spatial data while Optimus performs in-home tasks. Everything from vacuuming, washing dishes, dusting, and other activities will be tracked.
There will also be a comprehensive alert system that will track everything from low battery to mechanical issues.
Other Changes
Most of the changes tracked in this particular app update are related to Tesla’s 2026 Summer Update, and include things such as image assets for new features, a preview of the new custom wraps feature, and other unique features.
You can check out our coverage on what is included with the 2026 Summer Update here:
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) will report its earnings for the second quarter of 2026 this evening after market close, and investors and analysts are waiting anxiously to see what the company will report for the second three-month span of the year.
Analysts have already put out their expectations from a financial standpoint for the company’s second quarter, but what’s unknown is what Tesla plans to discuss during the call.
Financial Expectations
Wall Street consensus expectations put Tesla’s Earnings Per Share (EPS) at $0.53, while revenues are expected to come in around $26.4 billion.
This would compare to an EPS of $0.39 and $22.19 billion compared to Tesla’s Q2 2025. Last quarter, EPS came in at $0.41 on $22.387 billion of revenue. Additionally in Q1, Tesla beat analyst expectations, but shares dropped over 3 percent the following trading day.
What We Expect
In terms of discussions, Tesla earnings are pretty sporadic and depend on a handful of things, including current events, investor questions, and more.
Tesla uses a platform called Say to field questions from investors and analysts. These questions are what will be used during the call. Here are the top 5 from the Retail side and top 3 from the Institutional side:
Retail:
“Tesla has missed short-term guidance on robotaxi 3 earnings reports in a row, from 50% coverage of USA by end of 2025 to most recently 7 new cities in 1H26. What is keeping Tesla back from accomplishing these short term goals that they’ve set for themselves?”
“What are the main constraints to expanding robotaxi operations faster, and how do you see that lining up with Cybercab production?”
“What’s the current status of Optimus Gen 3 production ramp, initial deployment in factories, and external sales timeline/volume for 2027? What tasks can we expect the Optimus to perform by end of 2027?”
“To reward long-term Tesla retail shareholders for their loyalty, can you commit to achieving at least half of the goals outlined in your 2025 compensation plan before considering any offers to acquire or merge Tesla?”
“Why has growth of robotaxi vehicles stalled? When will we see cybercab start customer rides?”
Institutional
“Previously, you’ve said Tesla would lead the R&D while SpaceX would lead production for Terafab. Can you provide an update on how that division of responsibilities is evolving, and any additional clarity on the expected capital contributions from Tesla and SpaceX?”
“For autonomous driving, Tesla’s fleet created a huge data advantage by collecting billions of real-world miles. That advantage doesn’t yet exist for Optimus. How should we think about data availability and its impact on Optimus development?”
“Why is it necessary to limit robotaxi operations within specific zones within cities to start? Will every city have to be rolled out this way?”
Tesla will report earnings for Q2 this evening with the Shareholder Deck at 4 p.m. ET, with the call starting around 5:30 p.m. ET.
Tesla is about to make parking in busy lots less stressful than ever
Tesla starts preparing for Optimus in its smartphone app
