Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has opened its largest North American sales and service center in Montreal with a view to beef up its Model S sales numbers, according to a report from the Montreal Gazette. The center stretches to 45,000 square feet and is located on Ferrier St. Tesla opened it up last week. The massive center replaces an earlier smaller location at Laval.
Montreal holds potential for Tesla
The present store, which was previously a Chrysler showroom, is the largest showroom out of 60 other Tesla locations operating in North America. However, the EV manufacturer is planning to open similar service stores in different regions, according to communications manager Will Nicholas. Jerome Guillen, senior vice president of global sales and service for Tesla, said because the customers are showing keen interest in the brand, it became necessary to move to a larger location.
Guillen said, “We saw the customer interest increase and increase, and we were just ready to step up. I think we owed it to our customers to be able to have a location to serve them properly.” Guillen said Montreal is a very important location for them.
The company is expecting the number of Model S on the roads of Quebec to rise into the thousands in a matter of a few years even though there are just 340 of them on Quebec roads as of now, out of around 1,500 in Canada, according to Nicholas. He added that there is a lot of potential for the new Tesla models in Quebec and Montreal, and the company needs to plan for the future. Nicholas said Tesla wants to have a capacity large enough to keep hundreds of thousands of cars.
More superchargers planned
Tesla exclusive DC supercharger, which offers 135 kilowatts of direct current to cars, is also installed at the dealership. Guillen said the company has made efforts to install these DC chargers at rest areas or coffee shops to enable Tesla owners to charge their cars within 20 minutes, adding 300 kilometers of range to the battery. Guillen also said charging is free of cost for customers to allow them to go long distances.
In the future, the Palo Alto-based company is looking to install dozens of superchargers across Quebec, a process which is taking more time than expected. The executive also said with the help of customer input, Tesla will easily identify locations that need chargers.
