The Piazza Auto Group agreed to a long-term lease with electric car maker Tesla Motors for a long-term lease of a dealership site at 1568 West Chester Pike in West Chester, PA.
The 30,000 square foot site sits on 3.6 acres along the retail corridor of West Chester Pike and Route 352. Piazza operates a Porsche, Maserati, and Jaguar dealership near Newark.
Jaguar Land Rover currently occupies the location and will relocate to a new location currently under construction.
The location is about 12 miles north of the Delaware line and would be the closest Tesla dealership to the First State.
Rich Weitzman, a senior vice president with Colliers, represented Piazza. Tesla plans to open the location in 2022. Metro Commercial represented the automaker.
In Delaware, Tesla operates a gallery at Christiana Mall and a maintenance center in Stanton. In addition, Tesla’s charging stations have popped up around the state, mainly at Wawa locations.
Electrik reported this week that the carmaker will shut down many of its galleries in high-end shopping centers and use cheaper locations such as mall parking lots and warehouses as a way to offer test drives.
In 2019, Tesla indicated it would shut down all galleries but later reversed course. However, as Elektrik noted, the automaker has not settled on an overall strategy in selling its vehicles.
It has opened dealerships in major metropolitan areas where allowed.
Tesla is facing more competition in the electric vehicle space, with Ford, Nissan, Toyota, and Subaru expected to roll out more models in the next year. Ford recently introduced a Mustang electric crossover. Until now, Tesla’s main competition has come from GM (Chevy Bolt) and Nissan (Leaf).
Tesla, unlike other automakers, operates its own dealerships rather than franchises, a practice that is illegal in Delaware.
A bill was introduced in Dover this year that would end the current franchise-only system of dealerships. The bill was assigned to a House committee. It was not clear as to whether Tesla sought the legislation.
(See story below)
Legislation would allow Tesla to bypass state’s restrictive auto dealer laws
