Vehicles parked inside the 999 Van Ness Avenue showroom have been on and off display amid growing protests against Tesla and Elon Musk.
The protests against Tesla (and, by extension, denouements of Elon Musk) are working. Despite a marginal blip in prices after Trump turned the White House into an electric-vehicle dealership, Tesla stocks continue nose diving; as of publishing, TSLA has fallen roughly 30% since February — a tail-end of its Q4 peak — and is inching to what financial experts consider a “marginal cliff,” which could see the company receive a margin call on specific loans that’ve floated the company.
The future doesn’t look too bright, nor is it favoring Musk in particular. Karma is playing out right before our very eyes. One of those karmatic examples is San Francisco’s downtown Tesla dealership, which is looking particularly sparse.
Like … empty in the sense it might be closing soon.
Users on Threads have posted images of the dealership at 999 Van Ness Avenue gutted of cars and some office spaces. Commenters on these posts were quick to infer that the space could be closing soon—a logical conclusion. City reports dating back nearly a decade show that the San Francisco showroom has been operating without proper permits after a renovation between 2015 and 2016.
“This was an oversight, and we are issuing a notice of violation today for the property to renew the building permit and pass the final inspection,” San Francisco Department of Building Inspection spokesperson Patrick Hannan said to the San Francisco Chronicle. The newspaper staff used an online permit tracking system by the DBI that allows the public to review buildings and their permit status with the city. Research into the issue revealed that the former Bentley dealer was renovated by Tesla to the tune of $2.3 million, but some of the areas affected were never correctly permitted.
While most of the unpermitted changes don’t affect areas where customers interact, some areas do pose a great threat to workers; a section containing an automotive lift — machines responsible for lifting cars in excess of 5,000 pounds — was not properly permitted before installation and subsequent use.
DBI has made quick remarks to ensure the City is actively pushing Tesla to comply in receiving proper permitting … and that the department is working on updating its woefully antiquated bookkeeping system that allowed this oversight to slip for so long in the first place.
But regardless of whether or not Tesla amends its permit violations, the writing is clearly on the wall for what used to be the company’s touchstone in San Francisco.
Amid ongoing protests — demonstrations that regularly see dozens, sometimes hundreds or more people — that line the sidewalks outside the dealerships, the dealerships have taken extreme measures: emptying their showrooms. The dealership has reportedly removed all cars from its showroom out of fear that they’ll be vandalized. Moreover, the dealership remains nearly empty during business hours; the once busy Tesla touchstone is more akin to an analog ghost town than a once-lauded tech startup. And the idea of a showroom … without anything on display, well, show isn’t exactly a narrative for success.
So yes, descering passersby: The emptied SF Tesla dealership is still open. But the writing seems to be on the wall.
Feature image: Courtesy of Threads via [at]nemeseri
