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Model S Tesla

((Tesla Motors))

Tesla Motors plans to expand in Pennsylvania in 2015 now that the high-end, electric car manufacturer received approval from the General Assembly to open more dealerships.

Tesla plans to open a sales and service center in the Pittsburgh area and install more supercharger stations around the state. The California-based car company currently has dealerships in Devon and King of Prussia.

The price of a Model S Tesla starts at around $71,000. That cost is lowered due to a $7,500 federal tax credit and a $2,000 state rebate.

Tesla Communications Manager Will Nicholas said there are over 100 Tesla owners in the Pittsburgh area. When those owners want to get their vehicles serviced now, they have to drive 120-plus miles to Lyndhurst, Ohio.

"We already have a contingency of owners there," Nicholas said. "If this continues to grow, we're going to need to service those cars. It makes sense to open a sales and service center there."

Tesla Roadster

Nicholas estimated that the number of Tesla owners in the Harrisburg area is in the 10s.

Until July 2014, a Pennsylvania law prohibited car manufacturers from also acting as a vehicle dealer. Tesla, which corporately owns all of its sales centers, got the law changed and are allowed to have a total of five dealerships in Pennsylvania.

Aside from opening a dealership in Pittsburgh, Nicholas said Tesla will also be installing more supercharger stations.

It takes between four and eight hours to fully charge a Model S using a 240-volt outlet. A supercharger will completely charge a battery in 40 minutes. Model S drivers get 265 miles for every charge.

"Those enable quick charging for free across popularly traveled routes across the country," Nicholas said. "So if you're driving from Boston to Miami or New York to L.A. you can leverage our network nationwide."

Nicholas said the company wants to also expand its "Destination Charging Program," which aims to partner Tesla charging stations with hotels, shopping centers, restaurants and museums around the country. Currently, there's a charging station at the Antique Automobile Club of America Museum in Hershey.

"We're kind of the tip of the spear here," Nicholas said. "We want charging infrastructure to be as ubiquitous as Wi-Fi Internet."

Mark Lizewski, executive director of the museum, said he's already seen a benefit of having a charging station at his facility. Tesla drivers and owners of other electric cars hook their vehicles up to the charging stations then spend a few hours in the museum.

The museum has three destination charging stations -- two for Tesla vehicles and one universal plug for other companies' vehicles. Tesla installed the charging stations in October.

The charging stations, Lizewski said, are bringing people to the antique car museum that might not have gone otherwise. People that use the charging stations are from all over New England, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

"We've gotten fairly good use out of it," Lizewski said. "The fact that we're right next to two or three major hotels, we're a mile down the road from Hersheypark and Chocolate World and the Giant Center and the fact that we're an automobile museum makes us a perfect destination site."

Lizewski said he would welcome a supercharger station at the museum.