Tesla opens its first New York City showroom today.
Fledgling Tesla Motors is spreading its wings with today’s opening of its first sales and service center on the East Coast.
The facility, in Manhattan’s Chelsea Art District, is targeting affluent urban drivers who might be less worried about the relatively limited range of the maker’s first battery-powered product, its $100,000 Roadster sports car.
Tesla already has two showrooms in California and opened a London store last month. It is also planning to open showrooms in Seattle next week and has plans for additional sales and service centers in Chicago, Miami, Munich and Monaco will later this summer.
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The California-based manufacturer of electric vehicles is also scouting locations in Washington DC and Toronto, company officials said.
Each store will serve as a regional service and distribution center. However, electric vehicles don’t need routine oil changes, exhaust system repairs, spark plugs, pistons, timing belts and other time-consuming and costly maintenance, noted Tesla spokeswoman Rachel Konrad.
Tesla customers also can now finance their roadster through Bank of America.
Any customer approved for 5-year financing terms on a base Roadster could put down as little as $20,000 before taxes and net of the US federal tax credit. The monthly payment would be approximately $1,700 at a 5 percent annual percentage rate. The Bank of America option makes the Tesla Roadster more affordable than comparable super cars, claimed to Tesla representatives.
The Roadster, which gets an estimated 244 miles per charge, costs roughly $4 to refuel and does not require routine oil changes or exhaust system work. Unlike high-maintenance internal combustion engines, Teslas get a 100 percent waiver on sales,
luxury and use taxes in at least four states, and they qualify for commuter lane privileges, free parking and free charging in many regions.
Based in California’s Silicon Valley, Tesla Motors struggled to get its Roadster into production before resolving a problem with its transmission, late last year. Though the battery-powered sports car is seen as a low-volume niche product, the start-up company hopes to broaden its appeal with the launch of a larger, but lower-priced, sedan, early in the next decade.