As Lordstown Motors gets closer to making and selling it's Endurance pick up, they are asking lawmakers to allow them to skip the dealerships and sell direct.

Lordstown Motors plans to start making the Endurance in September but when they start selling it, they don't think they should be required to do so through car dealerships as Ohio law requires.

Lordstown feels their business model is much different because they say most car dealerships make their money off of servicing their cars and since Lordstown will sell directly to fleet companies any maintenance would be done by that company.

Local state senators, Mike Rulli and Mike Loychik plan to introducing legislation allowing Lordstown Motors an exception in the law, similar to what was allowed for Tesla a few years ago.

"This bill will not impact sales at any auto dealer in the state. It will allow Lordstown Motors to sell its EV directly to the customers. In this way it protects our dealers, manufacturers while giving the EV manufacturer the flexibility to succeed, " said Loychik.

The Ohio Auto Dealers Association says they already have issues with the legislation.
They want Lordstown to operate within the current state laws and sell through dealerships.

"This is not a situation where we are trying to stop Lordstown by any means, we want them to succeed. We just want them to play by the same rules as everybody else," said Zach Doran, Ohio Auto Dealers Assoc.

Lordstown believes those rules might be antiquated as the electric vehicle industry continues to grow. OADA argues that companies like Ford, Honda and others who plan to build electric cars still plan to sell them through dealerships.