Rapidly-Expanding Tesla Adds 2 Bay Area Showrooms
CORTE MADERA (CBS SF) - Despite concerns over the most recent quarterly numbers, Tesla is moving ahead with new locations to showcase their electric vehicles.
"Tesla is a young company which means it's still in growth mode and that means spending a lot of money. That's exactly what they plan on doing this year, spending somewhere between $650 and $850 million," says KCBS financial reporter Jason Brooks.
Wednesday the company said revenues increased, earning $17 million in profit, but some investors raised eyebrows at net loss of nearly $50 million from last quarter.
Investors taking notice that expansion costs are starting to cut into the company's bottom line but for a start-up, experts say that's what they need to keep up with the growing demand.
Tesla Walnut Creek is set to open this week, and the Corte Madera showroom will be the company's first North Bay location.
"It's a little bit different from the traditional automotive dealer. What we want to do is just get people through the door, have an opportunity to educate and engage them about Tesla, about our technology and what it's like to drive and own an electric vehicle," said representative Alexis Georgeson of Tesla.
As for rumors that California could be home to the new Tesla battery "gigafactory," don't count on it.
I can't comment additionally on that outside of what Elon [Musk] said yesterday, obviously California is back in the running but we are mainly looking at those four (other) states for the battery factory."
Tesla plans to install hundreds of new charging stations in the U.S., and roll out the new Model X next year.
