Tesla, electric-car maker, rolls into South Jersey

CHERRY HILL – A new Tesla showroom here marks two firsts for the electric-car firm.

The Route 70 outlet, which opened Friday, is Tesla's first store in South Jersey. Its debut also introduced the Model 3, Tesla’s first “family sedan” aimed at a mass market.

“This will be the first time customers can see the car in New Jersey,” said Tesla, which is also expanding its network of "Superchargers" in South Jersey.

The Model 3, priced at $35,000 with standard equipment, also arrived Friday at Tesla’s showroom in Short Hills, Essex County. The car has more than 450,000 pre-orders, according to Tesla.

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The Cherry Hill outlet, in a converted furniture store east of Haddonfield Road, doesn't take a traditional approach to auto sales.

No one drives a new car off the lot, in part because there is no lot.

Just three models are on display inside the 28,000-square-foot showroom.

Customers typically design their own vehicles, either online or in the showroom, and test rides can require appointments.

Vehicles are made to order at Tesla's factory, then are sent to the showroom for inspection and delivery.

"I'm waiting so impatiently," said Elizabeth Ashley of Williamstown, who visited the showroom Friday morning to see a Model S similar to the one she ordered online last month.

"I'm in love," she said, smiling at the sleek sedan, which starts at $74,500. "I just love the way that car looks — and no gas. That was huge."

The showroom also holds a Model X, Tesla's SUV crossover with a starting price of $79,500.

The display model, with sparkling white "vegan leather" seats, includes eight cameras and 12 ultrasonic sensors for the car's autopilot, or "advanced driver assistance" system.

The automated system is intended for use with an attentive driver with his or her hands on the steering wheel "and prepared to take over at any time," according to Tesla.

A service department also opened Friday for local Tesla drivers, who previously had to travel to a store in the Philadelphia suburb of Devon. It will primarily inspect electrical and computer systems, according to Tesla.

Workers also will perform "suspension, tire and brake work, as well as interior repairs," the company said in a filing last year with Cherry Hill's planning board.

A state law currently restricts Tesla, with about 300 outlets worldwide, to only four licensed stores in New Jersey.

The Cherry Hill store will use a license previously issued to a Tesla facility in Paramus, Bergen County. The North Jersey location “will remain open as an educational gallery, but no longer possesses a sales license,” the company said.

Tesla, founded in 2003, said it seeks legislation to “expand access to sustainable energy products with new showrooms and service centers throughout the state.”

That push drew support Thursday from Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.

“New Jersey needs to pass legislation and fund programs that advance electric vehicles in our state,” Tittel testified at a public hearing on zero-emission vehicles before the state’s Clean Air Council.

He noted Gov. Phil Murphy has vowed New Jersey will join a multi-state compact to promote the use of electric vehicles.

The effort is intended to put 330,000 electric vehicles on New Jersey highways by 2025, up from about 12,000 now, the environmental activist said.

Tittel said the state also must offer “a charging network that allows people to drive through New Jersey without range anxiety.”

New Jersey currently has seven Tesla Superchargers, which can charge a vehicle mid-trip within 30 minutes to an hour. The company says “additional Superchargers (are) being installed in the Cherry Hill region in the next year.”

Deptford's planning board earlier this month considered a proposal for a Supercharger at Deptford Mall, while Tesla also has said a charging site is planned at an undisclosed site in Mount Laurel.

Jim Walsh: @jimwalsh_cp; 856-486-2646; jwalsh@gannettnj.com

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