A new Tesla dealership and service center is coming to Bradenton-Sarasota. Take a look
It might have been the Apple store that attracted the biggest crowds when the Mall at University Town Center opened Oct. 16, 2014.
But it was the Tesla showroom and its two electric car models that most fascinated shoppers.
The showroom offered a glimpse into the future at a time when few had seen one of the electric cars up close.
In 2015, Tesla sold about 18,742 cars in the United States. The company is projected to sell nearly 400,000 cars in 2022, according to goodcarbadcar.net.
With that kind of growth, Tesla is expanding its presence in the Bradenton-Sarasota area and plans to bring a two-story, 55,000-square-foot showroom and service center to University Town Center.
The exact opening date has not yet been confirmed, but Benderson Development is projecting late 2023.
A new Tesla dealership and repair center is also planned for St. Petersburg after the purchase of a former furniture store property was finalized in April.
The Tesla facility is scheduled to be built along University Parkway in the East District at UTC near the Yard House restaurant now under construction and Tiger Woods’ Popstroke golf venue.
Florida now trails only California in the number of electric vehicle registrations. In 2021, there were 95,640 electric vehicles registered in Florida, a 64.4% year-over-year increase from 2020, according to Electrek, a news and commentary site on the transition from fossil-fuel transport to electric transport.
In 2020, Manatee County had 1,509 EV registrations with Tesla accounting for 59% of those, according to Florida Tesla Enthusiasts.
Sarasota County had 2,148 EV registrations and 56% of those were Teslas.
A recent Pew Research Center survey found that a majority of U.S. adults support providing incentives to increase the use of electric or hybrid vehicles.
But the survey also showed that Americans are divided over whether they personally would consider buying an electric vehicle. A majority oppose phasing out gas-powered vehicles in the years ahead.
Tesla produces electric vehicles in Fremont, Calif., Austin, Texas, Berlin, Germany and Shanghai, China.
Each of those factories produced a record number of vehicles in the third quarter, despite headwinds from raw material costs, supply chain bottlenecks, rising transportation costs and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company reported.
“We continue to believe that battery supply chain constraints will be the main limiting factor in EV market growth in the medium and long terms,” the company reported.
Elon Musk, the “Technoking of Tesla,” serves as the company’s chief executive officer, as well as CEO of SpaceX and is the owner of Twitter, a company he acquired for $44 billion in October.
This story was originally published November 29, 2022 at 12:47 PM.
