So-called popup stores are an increasingly common way for retail brands to get media attention and attract new customers, without the expense of building and staffing a full-time location.
Now California carmaker Tesla Motors is extending the concept to bring its luxury Model S electric car to likely audiences in affluent summer resorts.
Tesla's mobile popup store debuted in Santa Barbara, California, last Friday.
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As noted last week by the investment site The Fool, Tesla is offering "a touring, full-fledged store experience -- a feat auto dealers may have difficulty matching."
Contacted by Green Car Reports, Tesla's Alexis Georgeson said the store will stay in Santa Barbara for one month.
![Tesla Motors 'popup store' to display electric cars, Santa Barbara, CA, May 2015 Tesla Motors 'popup store' to display electric cars, Santa Barbara, CA, May 2015](https://images.hgmsites.net/lrg/tesla-motors-popup-store-to-display-electric-cars-santa-barbara-ca-may-2015_100511741_l.jpg)
Tesla Motors 'popup store' to display electric cars, Santa Barbara, CA, May 2015
Then it will head to its next stop: the swanky group of towns that make up the Hamptons on the east end of New York's Long Island.
Store staff will educate visitors on electric-car ownership and driving, with interactive displays and personal consultations. Test drives will also be available.
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Georgeson elebaorated: "The unique shipping container experience was designed to be mobile, and [to] follow customers to the summer’s most popular destinations.
"Designed in-house, the unit arrives and unfolds to double its size in just a few hours. The pop up is made of two shipping containers with steel beams between them and a canvas roof.
![Tesla Store opening in Westfield Mall, London, Oct 2013 Tesla Store opening in Westfield Mall, London, Oct 2013](https://images.hgmsites.net/lrg/tesla-store-opening-in-westfield-mall-london-oct-2013_100444210_l.jpg)
Tesla Store opening in Westfield Mall, London, Oct 2013
"The entire space, once assembled is the width of about four side-by-side shipping containers.
"The structure is mobile; it arrives by truck and assembles in just a few hours.
"The mobility and convenience of this design allows Tesla to bring our unique retail approach to customers in new locations where we do not yet have a brick-and-mortar location."
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Nissan took the same approach--essentially a traveling road show--with its "Drive Electric" tour a few years ago.
Tesla's model of educating consumers in company-owned stores and then selling cars direct to buyers online is being fought by state and national auto-dealer groups.
Those groups and their lobbyists have succeeded in getting laws changed laws in some states to ban the company from selling cars itself.
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