Tesla opened its first retail dealership on Thursday, May 1, in Los Angeles.
Electric-vehicle maker Tesla Motors opened its first dealership on Thursday, May 1, in Los Angeles, at one of the busiest intersections in the city.
Close to the crawling 405 freeway and the congested corner of Santa Monica and Sepulveda boulevards, the Tesla factory store makes a potent statement for gridlocked Angelenos to buy an electric car....
The Tesla store looks more like a cool ad agency or hip restaurant than a car dealership. Its industrial look features poured concrete floors, exposed beams and ductwork, mirrored front glass and planter boxes filled with horsetail stems. The service department is out in the open to allow customers to see what is going on with their cars.
Tesla's dealership cost about $2 million to build.
The 10,000-square-foot dealership cost about $2 million to create, including the dismantling of the two adjacent buildings to make one showroom, Siry said. He declined to give the cost of rent.
Being a factory store, the employees work for Tesla. The sales staff is salaried, not commissioned.
Company founder and financier Elon Musk defended the concept of factory stores.
“The Apple Stores have worked out well. It’s a fantastic consumer experience,” Musk said. “We wanted a nontraditional automotive experience, and we have it.”
The next Tesla store will be in Menlo Park, California, near the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters. It should open by summer. Tesla is looking to add four stores in New York, Miami, Seattle and Chicago by the first quarter of 2009, Siry said.
[ read the whole article over at Autoweek]
I have to admit...I'm a little disappointed that they didn't open up the first one in the Bay Area. But I guess we get to look forward to that come summer time.
Edited by stins - Fri, 02 May 2008 16:44:37 GMT
