A Tesla vehicle repair and maintenance facility in Berkeley is coming, the city’s mayor revealed at a council meeting Tuesday night before tweeting about company CEO Elon Musk’s outer-space ambitions.
“I would ask @elonmusk to join at the ribbon cutting, but he will probably be too busy planning a colony on Mars,” Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín tweeted shortly after breaking the news.
Details were scarce, with website Berkeleyside tweeting from the meeting that Arreguín said the Palo Alto electric car maker would open a “repair and maintenance operation” in the city.
The site later reported that Tesla plans to locate the center in west Berkeley at 901 Gilman Street, the former site of Pyramid Alehouse, which left in mid-2015.
Architect David Trachtenberg told Berkeleyside his firm was working with Tesla on the project, but didn’t know yet about timing.
Tesla has nearly 10 service centers in the Bay Area, including in Fremont, Dublin, San Francisco and San Rafael.
News of the facility comes as Tesla has started asking non-employees holding reservations for its Model 3 sedan — the firm’s bid to bring electric vehicles to the mass market — to submit their orders and choose options. Production of the car has suffered significant delays, but Tesla maintains that it is successfully ramping up production.
The company also plans in the next few years to bring to market a “Model Y” compact SUV, a road-rocket “Roadster,” a pickup truck and a semi.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for details about the planned Berkeley facility.