Tesla Motors Opens 1st MD Gallery in Montgomery County

Montgomery County and DC-area residents shopping around for electric cars now have a new option to check out: the recently opened Tesla Motors gallery at the Westfield Montgomery mall (7101 Democracy Blvd., Bethesda).

The gallery, which opened on Friday (on the ground floor of the mall, diagonally across from the J. Crew store), is for looking and learning about—rather than for buying—the electric car company's new Model S sedan car. (Buying is done online.) But the gallery is a great place to get an up-close-and-personal look at the Model S—which runs entirely by battery—and to learn about its novel, environmentally-friendly features.

For starters, the Model S car has a large touch-screen computer, to the right of the steering wheel, where one may monitor everything from battery usage and remaining power, to music, air conditioning and parking—there's a camera that shows the view from the rear bumper—perfect for parallel parking in the city.

Then, there's the storage. There's a rear trunk, with two jump seats, and a front trunk—because there's no big, greasy engine to cart around. The battery itself is spread out under the floor of the car, resulting in a very low center of gravity, which increases the safety of the car, Tesla spokesperson Alexis Georgeson explained to Patch. 

And, the back seat of the sedan has full leg room across the width of the car—no more scrunched up legs for the middle passenger. With the jump seats, the Model S seats seven people.

The car is not cheap—it costs about $60,000—but its fuel savings are huge. The car can go about 300 miles on a fully-charged battery, and will cost about $13 to charge up at home. It plugs into a regular outlet—a 240-volt outlet is ideal, but 110-volt outlets also are fine, Georgeson said.

Charge up overnight at home, or in 20 minutes at a special electric car charging station, designed by Tesla Motors, called a "Tesla Supercharger." 

"This is a product we design and is the world’s fastest charging technology," Georgeson said of the Tesla Superchargers, which are being installed up and down Interstate 95 (where lines to get gas frequently are more than 20 minutes long).

And, there are many regular charging stations already in the region.

Every Model S car is built to order, and can be purchased online. It takes about three to six weeks for the cars, which are made in northern California, to be delivered to customers, Georgeson said. 

The Tesla gallery at Westfield Montgomery is designed to be an educational center, not a place where people will be pressured into buying anything, Georgeson added. 

If you can't quite afford a $60,000 car right now, do what this reporter did: Check it out, and look forward to the time—hopefully a few years from now—when electric cars will be so common that they'll be available on the used car market. 

Will you check out the Tesla gallery? Are you excited about the greaseless electric car? The front trunk space? Tell us in the comments.

Editor's note: This post has been updated.