A better write up
So now that it’s the weekend and I’ve got a few hours to stop and think about it (the day job has been pretty hectic lately), I thought I’d give a better write-up of Thursday night’s event and the new store.
I met up with Malcolm just before the doors opened. There was a bit of queue/line evident from the top of the street, so we headed to the designated meeting point for a quick beer and swapped stories about what lead us to become members of Tesla Motors Club. We saw Robert Llewellyn go by, looking slightly lost but hurrying anyway, so we thought we’d better drink up and join Nikki and the others who were already over there.
Cheval Place, contrary to what you might expect from the name, is a long and narrow street that runs parallel to Brompton Road (one of the main streets in Knightsbridge and Kensington). It is 200 metres from Harrods and around 400m from the tourist destinations of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum. Many embassies are nearby. Whenever I visit the museums, I never fail to spot at least two Ferraris when crossing the road from the tube station, so Tesla will fit right in. If there is a downside, it is that you have to be going there to find it – it will not see passing trade. Perhaps word of mouth sales are what the company is after at this stage. Nevertheless it shouldn't be too hard for those who are non-natives to find when you visit London.
So Malcolm and I got down to the store and there was plenty of activity in the street outside. A couple of sales cars were parked in the street and Simon Rochefort, Michael van der Sande and several other members of staff were showing interested folks around the cars. As far as I was aware, no customer drives were offered during the evening.
Sales cars in the street outside
We headed into the store to try to find the rest of the group. Tesla had built a small platform with red carpet across the pavement/sidewalk, with the familiar Tesla T logo background screen forming a temporary entrance to the premises. To the right was the car lift with the first Euro-spec customer car on it, to the left the showroom. I decided to lose my bag in the cloakroom (Don’s office on secondary duties) before taking any pictures or checking out the cars.
The showroom itself is quite compact, certainly no bigger than the LA store's. At a push, I’d imagine they could get 5 cars in there on the upstairs floor. At the back is a small outdoor patio at basement level, accessed from spiral stairs. There are a couple of rooms off the main showroom floor, one being Don’s office and the other was in use by the catering staff. There is a small kitchen/bar area which has the customary complementary drinks fridge.
The patio
Downstairs was devoid of any workshop features on the evening and had more of a club atmosphere. There was a bar set up - the counter for which looked permanent – and the area under the car lift was being used to prepare canapés. Maybe someone can find out whether they intend to use this area to service cars or only store them for delivery.
The downstairs basement area
