Parking lots full of Tesla vehicles are becoming impossible to ignore as the electric automaker seemingly can’t sell enough cars and trucks to match its rate of production. According to its own figures, the electric automaker produced 46,561 more vehicles than it delivered to customers during the first quarter of 2024. Where are all these cars going? Parking lots at its factories, malls and airports.
The Chesterfield Mall, about 20 miles west of St. Louis, has become an overflow lot for Tesla. Emblematic of American retail’s current state, the mall is slated to be demolished and replaced with a $2 billion mixed-use project. The Staenberg Group, the mall’s owner, is eking out the last drops of revenue before the mall’s remaining tenants have to move out on August 31. Tim Lowe, a Staenberg Group senior vice president, told KTVI:
“We put a plan together to try and create alternate uses that would kind be able to use some of the remaining life left in the mall before we tear it down. One of those uses was allowing people to use the parking lot for different things.”
“One of our users happens to be Tesla, who does have a dealership in the [Chesterfield] Valley, but does not have enough capacity at the dealership to park all of the cars they are bringing in. So they are renting space within the parking lot to store their cars.”
Lowe estimates that there are at least 300 Tesla vehicles parked at the Chesterfield Mall. However, Tesla isn’t slowing down production, Recent drone footage from the automaker’s Fremont, California factory shows that cars are still rolling off the assembly lines at a high rate to fill the site’s lots. Things aren’t different on the other side of the Atlantic. Neuhardenberg, a small town in Germany of less than 3,000 residents, is complaining about the noise Tesla transporters are making as the company parks cars at the nearby regional airport.
Along with having to store ten percent of the vehicles it builds, Tesla also laid off ten percent of its workforce. The Cybertruck is also proving to be a nightmare for many of the owners who decided to take the plunge on the divisive electric pickup, including a warrant that covers coolant leaks for the first 35 miles.
