- San Fransisco’s Tesla showroom has been running illegally for close to a decade.
- Inspectors never signed off on the $2.3 million overhaul of the 1937 building.
- Officials told the SF Chronicle the failure to sign off on the work was an “oversight.”
Tesla’s modernist dealership in San Francisco has had plenty of visitors lately, most of them protesting at Elon Musk’s DOGE activities that have put thousands of federal employees out of work. But there’s one guy who really out to have stopped by but didn’t: the building inspector.
City officials never got around to signing off on a $2.3 million refit that took place in 2015 and 2016, the San Francisco Chronicle reports, meaning the showroom has been operating without a permit for close to a decade.
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Tesla acquired the 1937 building on the corner of Van Ness Ave. in late 2015 and set about renovating the former Bentley showroom, updating its mechanical and electrical systems ready for a 2016 opening, the SFC says. The Department of Building Inspection did make several trips to the site during the refit, giving the nod to the plumbing, electrical and heating systems and the ceiling.
However, the paper’s investigative team found out that the inspectors failed to give the showroom the final sign-off. It looks like one official did try to carry out the final inspection in August 2016, but for some reason couldn’t follow through and no one returned to finish the job.
When asked about the missing paperwork, a DBI spokesperson said the whole situation was an “oversight” and they would issue a notice of violation and demand Tesla renew the permit and pass an inspection to make it legal. We asked Tesla for a comment but, unsurprisingly, have yet to hear back (Tesla offered no comment to SFC’s reporters either). Another official told SFC that the City’s antiquated permit tracking system was to blame.
The revelation that the showroom has been operating illegally for nearly 10 years isn’t a trivial matter, but it’s probably not at the top of Musk’s to-do list right now. The company’s sales have plummeted this year, as has Tesla’s stock price, and the wave of protests, vandal attacks and Musk’s close relationship with President Trump and support for far-right political groups in Europe isn’t the best for the brand’s public image – nor, so far, its sales.