Tesla announces the site of their first store
Tesla Motors announced several months ago that they would eschew the traditional franchise dealer approach of most car companies in favor of company owned retail and service outlets. The plan was to launch with five stores located in New York, Chicago, South Florida, Los Angeles and the Bay area.
They've just announced the details on the Bay Area store which will be in Menlo Park just up the road from the Stanford University campus. The property they are leasing is actually owned by the university and was formerly home to a Chevrolet dealer that closed last year. The first production Roadsters are due off the line in early October and the store is targeted to open by the end of the year as long as construction goes smoothly.
[Source: Tesla Motors]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Paige Martin 3:27PM (2/20/2008)
PS - (for those that love the Tesla Roadster like me) Tesla Motors Inc., a San Carlos, Calif.-based maker of electric cars, has raised just $40 million in "bridge financing." Valor Equity Partners and Tesla chairman Elon Musk co-led the round. more information at http://www.houstonproperties.com/blog/1
Reply
Darryl 11:36AM (8/05/2007)
We also have a lease on a location on Santa Monica blvd in LA that we are currently designing and plan to build out this year. So I would describe the LA location and Menlo Park location as being built concurrently. We will be doing a blog on this in the near future.
Reply
iDevin 11:41AM (8/05/2007)
Two pieces of irony:
Menlo Park, NJ was where Thomas Edison set up shop - he was known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park" back in the day. Although we're talking about Menlo Park, CA I find it kind of amusing that Tesla is moving into Edison's turf even if only by name.
The other piece is of course that Tesla is moving into an old Chevy dealership - a sign of the times and a subtle "ha ha" to GM.
Reply