The first Tesla store will open in... Menlo Park, in the Bay Area. It will be in a property owned by Stanford University, which used to house a Chevrolet dealer. Not only is the world getting a green car dealership, but it's losing a non-green one. The original idea was to launch a dealership in New York, Chicago, South Florida, Los Angeles and the Bay area - but tragically none in my home-town of London (not that I can afford one anyway, but I could window-shop).

Tesla announced a while ago that they wouldn't be selling franchises for dealerships, but would own and run them all. They're almost like the Apple Computers of the car world; demanding control of every step of the process, from design to sales. Like Apple, this looks like it has resulted in an amazing product which I would happily give a (small) body part to own. The store should be open by the end of the year, which is just after the first production Tesla Roadster is finished in October. ::Auto Blog Green