By K.D. Norris
After City of Kentwood Mayor Stephen Kepley briefly discussed the likelihood of Tesla building and opening a facility in the city, recorded as part of the WKTV Community Media’s coverage of the Jan. 11 Wyoming-Kentwood Area Chamber of Commerce’s Government Matters meeting, the city today confirmed it has issued a building permit for a Tesla service center and gallery.
According to the Tesla official website, there are only two other Tesla store and galleries in the state of Michigan, one in Clarkston (Detroit) and the other in Troy. The location of the Kentwood facility is unannounced at this time.
“We look forward to welcoming Tesla’s new service center and gallery to Kentwood later this year,” Mayor Kepley said in a Jan. 13 statement to WKTV. “Our city continues to be a destination for retail, drawing some of the nation’s premium brands to our community. It’s particularly gratifying to see investment during the pandemic, which is a testament to optimism in our economy. Kentwood remains open — and eager — for business.”
Tesla, according to its website, was founded in 2003 by a group of engineers “who wanted to prove that people didn’t need to compromise to drive electric – that electric vehicles can be better, quicker and more fun to drive than gasoline cars.” Currently, Tesla builds not only all-electric vehicles but also “infinitely scalable clean energy generation and storage” products.
According to various media reports, electric-car maker Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was worth about $700 billion to end 2020. The stock was recently added to the S&P 500 index as its fifth largest constituent. Tesla’s vehicle deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2020 were reported to be about 180,600 units.
Elon Musk, head of Tesla and the Space X enterprises, recently was reported to have become the world’s richest person, with a net worth of about $185 billion.
To see the on-demand recording of the recent WKTV Government Matters program, visit WKTVlive.org.
