Philips Highway has long been known as a corridor for auto dealerships and service centers.
Add Tesla to the route.
Tesla Motors Inc., which makes and sells electric cars, intends to develop a sales and service center along Philips Highway, which would be its second presence in the market.
It already operates a small showroom in St. Johns Town Center and will relocate to a larger one there.
Tesla applied for a permit to renovate 18,180 square feet of space at 7818 Philips Highway at a construction cost of $250,000 to accommodate a service and sales center. No contractor is specified.
Plans explain that Tesla, based in Palo Alto, Calif., will operate an electric automobile repair, sales and service center.
Servicing an electric automobile is different from servicing a gas-powered car, plans explain. Tesla’s vehicles have no internal combustion engine. They are exclusively electric and are not hybrid. Electric motors require little to no maintenance, the plans say.
MBH Architects of Alameda, Calif., is the architect.
The site plans depict a 2,755-square-foot showroom and a 16,248-square-foot service center. That adds up to slightly more than the permit states.
The building is at the front of Perimeter Commerce Park.
Tesla, incorporated in 2003 and traded publicly, designs, develops, makes and sells high-performance fully electric vehicles and energy products. It operates subsidiaries in North America, Europe and Asia.