Tesla Inc.'s (TSLA) - Get Report just over 100 stores in the U.S. are useless to anyone looking to buy the Model 3.

For the people placing an order on the new $35,000 electric sedan, they likely know ahead of time that their keys will not be in their hands until sometime in late 2018.

What they may not know is that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has seemingly told its employees working in its stores - the company's website shows 107 locations in the U.S. - not to discuss the Model 3 with customers. Have a question about your newly purchased vehicle? Too bad.

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"We're not promoting the car. If you go to our stores, we don't even want to talk about it, really, because we want to talk about the thing that we can supply," Musk said on a company earnings call with analysts on Wednesday, Aug. 2.

Essentially, customers are told to go online if they want to learn more about the Model 3.

"I want to emphasize you can't see the car unless you want to look at pictures online," Musk said. "You can't test drive a car. You have to put down a $1,000 deposit."

What you might find in a Tesla store is someone trying to convince you to buy solar panels.

"On the solar side, one of the interesting things that we're seeing is we've put a solar display and an energy display into our stores in North America. And we've got energy experts that are on staff," Jonathan McNeill, president of Tesla Global Sales & Service, said on the call.

Out of its 107 store locations, Bloomberg reported last year, citing Green Street Advisors research, that 24 are simply Tesla showrooms in malls, which means customers can't test drive a single car. The company's mall showroom locations include one in the Aventura Mall in Florida, one in the Fashion Mall at Keystone in Indianapolis and one in the King of Prussia Mall in Pennsylvania.

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