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Hundreds of new Tesla cars stored in an abandoned shopping centre in Missouri are as fascinating as they are revealing about the current state of Elon Musk’s company. And the situation is far from new…
It’s not great news that Tesla sales are not doing particularly well worldwide. And even in the United States, the home of the electric vehicle manufacturer, Tesla and other Cybertrucks are struggling to find takers: sales fell by a further 16% in April, while the overall market for electric cars in the country fell by just 4.4%. And when a new Tesla customer turns up, they may be unpleasantly surprised to discover that the vehicle delivered to them has been sitting in a car park for several months.
And car parks full of Tesla cars aren’t just an image: they’re a reality that’s been around for several years, but is only now really making news. In Westchester, Missouri, a disused Chesterfield shopping centre is now home to hundreds of Tesla cars in its huge car park. And we’re not talking about an electric car graveyard, like the ones you might find in China: here, the Teslas are brand new, never registered.
A 16-month lease to store cars
Located around 5 kilometres from the nearest Tesla dealership, the car park actually houses all the vehicles that the manufacturer is unable to store in-house. “Tesla has a short-term lease to park cars at Chesterfield Mall. We moved them to the Dillard’s plot when we started demolishing the mall,” explained one of the representatives of the leased site to Fox 2.
Tesla signed a 16-month lease to store its cars there six months ago. However, a scan of Google Street View shows that Tesla was already lining up in the area in 2023. It’s possible that the company was operating without proper authorisation at the time.
Just a bad patch or a future car graveyard?
This is not the first time Tesla has done this. There have already been precedents in Florida, where electric cars have been parked off-site, and some have even been vandalised. In Detroit, the municipality got involved, simply banning the practice.
With the Westchester shopping centre set to be completely demolished, it’s quite likely that Tesla won’t be able to renew its lease in ten months’ time. So the question arises: if Tesla’s sales don’t pick up sufficiently in the next few months to allow the company to sell off its stock, what will happen to these hundreds of vehicles? Especially as these cars may not have owners, but they are all equipped with batteries that deteriorate rapidly when not in use. In short, in addition to major economic problems, Tesla could potentially find itself with ecological problems on its hands… The last straw for a company whose mission is to “accelerate the global transition to sustainable energy”.
