Denver is now home to one of the few Tesla-operated body shops in the country.
The California-based electric vehicle manufacturer has, without fanfare, opened what the company calls a “body repair center” at 450 E. 52nd Ave. in Globeville.
It is one of nine such facilities in the country, according to Tesla’s website. There are three in California, two in Maryland and one each in Illinois, Nevada and Arizona.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. BusinessDen reported last March that the Globeville facility was in the works.
Tesla’s body shops are different from the company’s “service centers,” which are far more common — there are locations in Littleton, Superior and Colorado Springs. Those shops are intended to provide most vehicle repairs that can’t be fixed through a software update.
While service centers can provide some collision repairs, according to Tesla’s website, drivers involved in more severe crashes will likely find themselves at the body repair centers, which specialize in structural damage.
In the past, Tesla has guided customers with banged-up vehicles to approved third-party shops, where some owners have reported waiting months for their car to get fixed.
At 30,000 square feet, the Globeville facility is also much larger than Tesla’s existing service center at 6395 E. Evans Ave., which is about 7,500 square feet.
Tesla’s stock price has been on a tear in recent years. As of Tuesday morning, Bloomberg calculated CEO Elon Musk’s net worth at $195 billion, narrowly edging out Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos as the richest person in the world. But Bezos was back on top after markets closed.
