How to Buy an EV That Isn’t Sold in Your State
For electric vehicle shoppers, the current landscape for actually buying an EV can be quite challenging. You see, not all EVs are sold in all 50 states, usually for one of two reasons: Either state-by-state emissions requirements drive automakers’ choices on where to sell their limited supply of EVs (see: Honda and Hyundai), or upstart automakers have only company-owned dealers and direct sales to customers (see: Lucid, Rivian and Tesla) that sometimes run afoul of local franchise laws. What it boils down to is that some EVs might not be sold where you live — not now, and maybe not for a long time.
But if it’s the latest gotta-have-it automotive gadget, you’re not likely to let something as simple as “not sold here” stop you, are you? So, how can you buy that new EV if it’s not sold in your town?
Related: What’s New With Electric Vehicles for 2022?
Why Can’t You Buy That EV Where You Live?
Two reasons: In the first case, automakers often limit the sale of certain vehicles to states that have enacted specific emissions laws based largely on those first created by the powerful California Air Resources Board. Over the past two decades, other states across the nation have adopted standards similar to California’s, which usually require that a certain percentage of an automaker’s sales in that state be zero- or low-emissions vehicles.
It can be complicated, but what it boils down to is that some automakers would rather sell their EVs in states where they’ll get maximum legal credit for doing so regardless of where people might want to buy them. This is one reason you can’t currently buy a Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kona Electric or Ioniq Electric from a local dealer in certain states. Another is that EV demand is higher in metropolises, so sparsely populated states are less likely to be allocated many, or any, EVs.
Why don’t the manufacturers just sell them everywhere? It’s because either the supply is legitimately constrained by vehicle or battery availability, or because the company isn’t making enough money on each sale (perhaps even losing some) and without the benefit of satisfying a ZEV mandate in select states, it’s all downside. So-called “compliance vehicles” are considered the cost of doing business even if they aren’t profitable in their own right. Remember that the automotive market is global, and many countries have greater demand and more government support for EVs — not to mention more profit potential — than the U.S.
In the second case, certain states with strong auto dealer franchise laws have put a kink in the business models of automakers like Lucid, Rivian and Tesla, which maintain company-owned sales outlets instead of franchised dealers like nearly every other automaker. That originally set up a fight between Tesla, dealers and state legislators, and it means that in some states, you can’t go down to a Lucid, Rivian or Tesla showroom and order a new car. In some states, you can order the car directly but can’t take delivery of it without it first being titled in another state. In still other states, Tesla has been able to set up a few stores to allow sales, but they are restricted to only those stores. Some states don’t have Lucid, Rivian or Tesla stores at all (granted, Lucid and Rivian are roughly a decade behind Tesla and still developing their retail presence). Tesla has found workarounds that allow consumers to receive their vehicles in states that prohibit direct sales (pathways that Lucid and Rivian seem set to follow), but we could dedicate this entire post to how Tesla’s system works.
Instead, we’ll focus mostly on how to buy an EV that the automakers themselves have decided not to sell in your state. You have three options when going this route: Buy it through the automaker’s special online system (like Polestar), work with a dealer to find one (either local or out of state) or try to find it yourself.
The Automaker Option
Newer automakers are trying a different route with regard to selling EVs to consumers: direct sales, wherein you order your vehicle online and take delivery at a local “delivery center.” This is how Lucid, Polestar, Rivian and Tesla do it — you can visit a Tesla “Gallery” or Polestar “Space” to see and sit in a vehicle, maybe take a test drive in some locations that have vehicles for such purposes, and in some states place your order right there — but big parking lots full of inventory are not how Teslas or Polestars are sold; they’re almost all made to order. And if you live in a state that doesn’t allow factory-owned retail shops, your options are different between Polestar and the rest of the direct-sales upstarts.
You’ll have to order your Tesla online, but you have three options for taking delivery: Express Delivery to a Tesla delivery center in a state of your choice that allows such things; Tesla Direct shipping to an address of your choice within 220 miles of an existing Tesla delivery center; or Carrier Direct, in which you work with an independent shipper to have your vehicle delivered to you outside of that 220-mile limit.
For Polestar, it’s different. All Polestar Spaces are independently operated retail spaces (meaning they’re run by local dealerships). Delivery happens the same way as Tesla, but given that Polestar shops are not factory-owned, there are no restrictions on which states allow delivery and which do not — all of them are delivery centers. If you live within 150 miles of a Polestar Space, you can have a vehicle delivered to you by Polestar; if you’re outside that range, an independent carrier working with Polestar can bring you your vehicle for a fee.
Working With a Local Dealer
But what if you’re looking for a model that could be bought locally if only that automaker decided to sell it in your state? Historically, this has been the case with vehicles like Smart’s lineup, the Fiat 500e and the Honda Clarity, and it’s currently the case with the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kona EV (for now, according to Hyundai). If you live in a state where these vehicles aren’t sold, you still have a few options for acquiring one — but your best bet may be to work through a dealer. You can either do an inventory search using an excellent site like Cars.com but expanding the range to the national level instead of locally, or potentially even work with a favorite local dealer to have them search for one.
I approached Hyundai about this possibility regarding the impressive new 2022 Ioniq 5, the company’s first dedicated-platform EV. But as of this writing, the model’s sales are limited to 26 states across the country (Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Missouri, North Carolina, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin). Eventually, Hyundai’s plan is to open up sales across the country, according to a company spokesperson, but with limited quantities of the Ioniq 5 available now, it’s been allocated to a combination of states that have those zero-emissions vehicle laws and others.
That doesn’t mean you can’t have one if you live in, say, Iowa — it’s just that you aren’t going to find one at an Iowa Hyundai dealership. However, Hyundai did tell us that if you truly desire something like an Ioniq 5 before it’s sold in all 50 states, you can approach your local Hyundai dealership about getting one. Officially, Hyundai isn’t selling them in the 24 states not listed above, but dealerships are independent entities and might be able to work with you and a dealership in one of the listed states to acquire and ship one to your location — for a fee, of course. Horse trading between dealerships does happen, but your chances of receiving this service likely increase depending on your relationship with the dealer itself (such as how many cars you have bought from them in the past).
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Do Your Own Research
Surely you realize that you’re reading this post on the very website that’s perfect for helping you find and purchase a car that isn’t sold in your neighborhood. If you’re looking for an EV that isn’t sold in your state, simply expand your search distance for that vehicle until you find one, then contact that dealer directly.
The pandemic of the past two years has greatly expanded most dealerships’ ability to sell vehicles online, either through sites like Cars.com or directly to interested consumers, and many dealers in states far away from where you live have experience in selling and shipping such vehicles. Cars.com research has shown that consumers are increasingly open to the idea of transacting everything online and arranging for delivery — one reason upstart EV manufacturers are so keen on going the direct-sales method and skipping the traditional dealership model altogether. We’ve even done this ourselves in acquiring our latest Best of the Year vehicle, the new Ford Maverick, from a dealership two states away from our home office in Chicago (see how we did it).
Finally, an alternative that might be one of the best options for getting a rare vehicle that’s not sold where you are: Look for a pre-owned one. You can’t normally buy a new Tesla off the lot at a Tesla store, but you can buy a pre-owned one in stock at another brand’s used-car dealer lot. The car is already where you are, it’s already had a bit of depreciation (although not always as much as other brands or vehicle types) and there might even be greater selection. You’re not likely to find the latest and greatest offerings showing up on used-car lots, but it does happen sometimes.
Now the Bad News …
There are several downsides in trying to buy any new car that’s not sold in your state, EV or not, and even without the additional inventory pressures caused by a microchip shortage and more.
First, it’s not going to be cheap. You’re not going to be as successful haggling over the price for a rare car in high demand that isn’t sold where you live and is also likely to cause one or two dealers extra paperwork and time to sell; in fact, be prepared to pay a premium on top of the sticker price. You’re also going to pay not only the baked-in destination fee associated with the price of the new car, but also extra shipping costs for an independent carrier to ship the car from wherever it is to wherever you are. That can be anywhere in the neighborhood of $600-$2,000 depending on a host of external factors like route, how full the car carrier is, whether it’s on a big semi or a small trailer, increasing fuel costs, insurance, etc. There’s the matter of dealing with titles and taxes in two states, as well, which is always tricky when buying a car out of state and differs by state.
Again, working through an existing dealership can be a good way to help sort a lot of this out. But like any gotta-have-it, in-demand product with limited availability, you’re going to pay for the new hotness.
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