An electric car company has opened its first Inland Empire dealership.
Tesla Motors held a grand opening ceremony Friday for its sales and service center at 68080 Perez Road in Cathedra City, according to a report first published by The Press-Enterprise.
Besides the opening ceremonies, the event included interactive displays and a chance to drive Tesla’s Model S Sedan, which is the first car of its kind designed from the ground up to be an electric car, according to the report.
The Model S has gotten positive reviews from consumer magazines, but Tesla is still a struggling start-up business: the Palo Alto-based company reported losses of nearly $50 million during the first quarter of this year.
Tesla’s research and development costs rose by nearly 50 percent during the quarter, to $81.5 million, which is one reason for the company’s large quarterly losses.
Tesla, which is tweaking its cars so they can be sold overseas, made more than 7,500 Model S sedans during the first quarter and sold more than 6,400 hundred of them, according to the report.