Overview

• Rivian sued the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles in federal court on August 4, 2025, seeking to overturn a law that bars it from selling electric vehicles directly to Ohio consumers.
• The lawsuit targets a 2014 state law driven by intense lobbying from the Ohio Automobile Dealers Association that prohibits manufacturer retail licenses while granting Tesla an exclusive carve-out for three showrooms.
• Rivian’s complaint describes the ban as “irrational in the extreme” because it limits competition, reduces consumer choice and drives up costs and inconvenience without any countervailing public benefit.
• Under current regulations, Rivian can perform warranty service, repairs, rentals and out-of-state deliveries but is forbidden from completing new-vehicle sales transactions within Ohio.
• This marks Rivian’s first state-level challenge to a franchise restriction, aligning the automaker with Tesla, Lucid and VW’s Scout in a broader push to dismantle state direct-sales bans.