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Tesla Applies For Michigan Dealer’s LIcense

Tesla has applied for a Class A dealer’s license in Michigan according to the Detroit News. Is this the latest strategy to force Michigan to permit Tesla to sell cars its way within the state?

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Tesla is ratcheting up its war with the state of Michigan. According to the Detroit News, Tesla submitted an application to the Michigan Secretary of State’s office for a license to sell and service automobiles in Michigan last November. At the request of that office, Tesla submitted follow-up information in recent weeks. At this moment, it is unclear who at Tesla initiated the applications.

Fred Woodham, a spokesman for the Secretary of State’s office, said the department is reviewing the applications and a decision is expected “in the next month or two.” He would not elaborate on what additional information was requested, saying it “isn’t uncommon during the application review process.”

According to an e-mail Woodham sent to the Detroit News on January 31, Tesla applied for a Class A dealership license to sell new and used cars. A Class A dealer is required to have a “repair facility as part of their business or have an established relationship with a licensed repair facility,” according to Woodham.

The filing was first reported by Michigan Information & Research Service Inc., which is located in Lansing. It says if granted a license, Tesla could contract with anyone except itself to sell its cars. It could even dispatch a former employee to open a dealership in the state, specifying in the franchise agreement that the “dealership look, act and do business exactly as the Tesla-run stores.”

Tesla currently has about 400 customers in Michigan. There are 4 Supercharger locations within the state and the company website indicates a Tesla service facility in the Detroit area is coming soon. The Detroit News reached out to Tesla for a comment on the story but received no response from the company. It is possible Elon Musk may offer a clarification during the 4th quarter earnings call scheduled for February 10.

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Tesla has been locked in a tug of war with the Michigan legislature for several years. Michigan is home to Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler. None of those companies wants to see Tesla successfully challenge the franchise dealer sales model that has been the norm in the industry for generations. It is believed the major auto manufacturers have been pressuring the legislature to preserve the current system.

But Tesla is a formidable ally. It protested by boycotting the North American International Auto Show in Detroit last month, saying it would not help others sell cars in Michigan if it could not do so itself. This new gambit may substantially weaken the protectionist wall Michigan’s auto dealers and manufacturers have built around themselves.

Photo credit of Tesla store in Cincinnati: Al Behrman/AP via Detroit News

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Tesla’s Supercharger Diner probably just secured more locations

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tesla diner
Credit: Tesla

Tesla’s Supercharger Diner in Los Angeles dominated the company’s global usage rankings after just one year, proving the concept is more than just a one-off novelty location that will fade away.

The performance could incite the company to build more locations, something that CEO Elon Musk has hinted at for some time.

Tesla’s Supercharger Diner delivered 21.2 GWh of energy in its first year of operation, the company’s head of Charging, Max de Zegher, revealed on X. Of the top 10 most utilized Supercharger locations in Tesla’s global infrastructure, the Diner in Los Angeles was the most used by drivers, and it wasn’t particularly close:

On its launch day one year ago, nobody was too sure what the Tesla Diner would be about. It seemed like an interesting concept, and considering it had been in the works for years, it was a highly anticipated launch that many were looking forward to.

Based on its success, we could see additional Diners with Superchargers built throughout the United States, and potentially beyond. Musk has said on several occasions that the company would be willing to bring the Diner idea to more markets.

Tesla makes major change at Supercharger Diner amid epic demand

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Of the markets that Musk has mentioned, both Palo Alto and Austin have come to be perceived as ideal selections. However, there are no concrete plans as of now to build new Supercharger Diners anywhere; the location on Santa Monica Boulevard will remain the exclusive spot to pick up Tesla-inspired eats, at least for the time being.

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Tesla short sellers win big after shares fall after earnings

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A red Tesla Roadster driving around a turn
(Credit: Tesla)

Tesla short sellers won big following the company’s massive fall on Wall Street after it reported subpar Earnings on Wednesday.

Tesla short sellers collected about $4.12 billion in single-day profits on Thursday, according to BloombergShares fell as much as 15 percent during Thursday’s session. It closed as one of the worst days for Tesla on Wall Street in the past three years.

Investors sold off the stock after Tesla said it would aggressively direct its spending toward AI and its Optimus robot project. The company had record revenues, which were driven by one of the strongest quarters in terms of vehicle deliveries in company history.

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However, it missed EPS estimates by reporting just $0.33, a far cry from the $0.53 analysts expected.

S3 Partners reported that about 3 percent of Tesla’s outstanding stock is sold short. Managing Director at S3, Ihor Dusaniwsky, provided the short seller’s potential profit, as well as another figure: shorts have likely had paper gains of $8.92 billion this year, as Tesla shares are down 30 percent in 2026.

Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue

Tesla has burned short sellers many times in the past, but the company’s latest Earnings Call was a chance for those skeptics to taste some payback. Although the company gave some very transparent information regarding future projects, the rollout of Robotaxi, Optimus, and Semi, many investors took their profits on Thursday.

Notable short sellers like Michael Burry have been transparent about their skepticism around Tesla shares. Burry just revealed three weeks ago that he had opened up a new short on the stock, stating he shorted Tesla shares at $416.22. “Happy it jumped back to this level,” he said in a blog post.

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At the time of publication, Tesla shares were down about 3 percent and the stock was trading at $309.92.

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Tesla door handle saga gets its latest chapter and a big change is coming

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Credit: Tesla | Model 3 Owner's Manual

Tesla’s long-standing saga regarding its door handles and a manual release has entered its latest chapter, and as a result, a big change is coming.

On Friday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) denied Tesla’s petition that was seeking a defect investigation into roughly 180,000 Model 3 vehicles for an issue involving the emergency mechanical door release.

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NHTSA said that Tesla’s petition did not present evidence of a safety-related defect in the door handles or their emergency releases. Instead, the agency determined that it would rather solve the issue of the lack of labeling or location of emergency mechanical door releases and the federal safety rules that govern them.

Essentially, the NHTSA wants to create and enforce rules that would require automakers to make emergency door latch releases more clearly labeled in a car. Despite a Tesla having manual door releases on all four passenger doors, many people do not know they exist or how they work.

Tesla addresses door handle complaints with simple engineering fix

In recent times, Tesla has faced some criticism involving its door handles, specifically because some occupants have reported that they are unable to exit their vehicles after losing power. The door handles on a Tesla are electronically operated, but in the event that the 12V battery dies, there is a manual release that can be used.

The NHTSA only identified a single complaint involving the mechanical door releases: a 2022 Model 3 owner said the release was concealed and unlabeled after the vehicle lost power after a front-end collision. It has also already started to create a separate rulemaking process to make emergency door-egress systems more obvious.

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It should be noted that all Teslas have mechanical emergency door releases, but they are placed in various locations as the vehicles have aged and been redesigned from year to year. Refer to the safety manual for your vehicle if you have any confusion about where the emergency releases are and how they work.

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