State set to get first Tesla store, sparking excitement among customers: ‘It’s going to be saving us a lot of long trips’

Tesla is reportedly planning to open its first store in Vermont, saving the state’s residents from making time-gobbling trips to New Jersey or New York for purchases or repairs.

According to Electrek, the automaker intends to set up shop at a former Hannaford Supermarket in South Burlington, which made a zoning revision to sell the electric vehicles, and it has already placed its sign on the building.

The store is set to open at the end of January.

“It’s going to be saving us a lot of long trips going to service centers. … It takes about two-and-a-half hours to drive there,” Vermont Tesla Owners Group manager Todd Lockwood told the Burlington Free Press, adding that Tesla’s mobile-servicing option has its limitations.

The transportation sector is responsible for more than 16% of global carbon pollution, according to Our World in Data, with the typical gas-powered car producing about 10,000 pounds annually, per the Environmental Protection Agency.

EVs are part of the plan to reduce those numbers as the world looks to phase out dirty energy — the main contributor to warming global temperatures linked to a lack of food, severe weather, and displacement.

Vermont saw registrations for EVs grow more than 50% between 2020 and 2021, as reported by Yahoo Finance, and data from Drive Electric Vermont shows ownership of the vehicles has only continued to surge, with a 34% increase occurring between 2022 and 2023.

This comes after Vermont began allowing customers to directly buy EVs in 2021, per Electrek, while the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 helped make the vehicles more obtainable, along with myriad other money-saving, planet-friendly adjustments.

While more than one automaker has rolled out EVs to compete with Tesla, the Elon Musk-led brand is still lapping the competition.

“We wouldn’t be in an EV boom without Tesla,” one person wrote in the comments section of the Electrek report, speaking positively of the automaker’s mission to create sustainable transportation.

“Tesla and Vermont, a beautiful pair!” another added.

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