First St. Louis Tesla Motors Service Center Will Be in University City

The Tesla Model S is Motor Trend's Car of the Year for 2013 despite the fact that the luxury electric car is only sold from a dozen company owned stores. Tesla is pushing to make their car easier to buy with the addition of 10 more stores across the nation.

Though the St. Louis area is not getting a Tesla store (they don't offer dealerships) they are opening the next best thing in University City: a service center. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that St. Louis is one of twenty cities to get a new service center.

Tesla explained why they are putting service centers in places like St. Louis in their blog:

Finally, I’d like to address another issue that is very important to us as a company. We believe service is a top priority for every customer. At the beginning of 2012 we had 10 Stores, 1 Gallery and 9 Service Centers in the United States. At the end of this year, we plan to have 19 Stores, 3 Galleries and 26 Service Centers. In less than three months from now we will have more Tesla Service Centers in the United States than Stores and Galleries combined. We are opening service centers in numerous cities where we do not even have stores. This will ensure that all customers in these areas will have access to Tesla certified technicians, despite the fact that we do not have a store in the immediate area. By the end of this year, over 85% of all Model S reservation holders in North America will be within 50 miles of a Tesla Service Center. 92% will be within 100 miles. Service is a top priority at Tesla and always will be.

The California based car company was founded in 2003 and has a different approach to selling cars. Rather than place their product in dealerships, they are opening stores in malls and other shopping places. The stores have one car on display and few more to test drive. Customers are asked to place an order to get their own vehicle.

The Model S is already sold out and they are taking reservations for new cars as they are manufactured. More than 12,200 reservations have been made worldwide for Model S through July 2012. Customers can reserve a Model S at one of Tesla’s retail stores or online.