Elon Musk’s retrofuturistic Tesla gas station will have a drive-in theater and 24-hour cafeteria
Tesla is about to open its first entertainment-focused gas station: a 24-hour cafe and drive-in in Los Angeles that will show famous movies on a big screen while drivers wait for their electric vehicles to charge.
Where will this station be located?
Elon Musk’s retro-futuristic Tesla gas station is being built on Santa Monica Boulevard, which is the West Hollywood stretch of historic Route 66. Last month, Musk, co-founder and CEO of Tesla Motors, revealed some details of the gas station: “Our futuristic Tesla (Grease meets The Jetsons with Supercharging) coffee shop in Los Angeles should be ready by the end of this year.”
Although Tesla didn’t divulge too many details about the project, the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety has issued several permits in recent months for the site and the documents divulge some details about what’s to come.
According to Teslerati, a media outlet that reports on Musk’s adventures, the gas station located at 7001 W. Santa Monica Blvd. will be open 24 hours a day and will have 32 charging stations. Although Google lists the address as being in West Hollywood, it is located just outside the city limits.
For those who want to enjoy Route 66 in California, this meeting place will also feature a restaurant, a rooftop, a movie screen and bamboo trees.
For the past few years, Elon Musk has been teasing the supercharging point on X, formerly known as Twitter. He originally posted about the project in 2018: “I’m putting a drive-in movie theater like the old ones, roller skates and rock restaurant at one of the new Tesla Supercharger locations in LA” and mentioned that it would be near Interstate 405.
Entertainment for fans
Then, in 2021, Musk posted that the 1950s cafe and movie theater that would screen the top 100 movies would be in the city of Santa Monica. However, plans for the site were diverted to Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood.
The idea seemed to solidify earlier this year at Tesla’s 2023 Investor Day on March 1, when Rebecca Tinucci, who leads the charging infrastructure teams at Tesla, referenced the gas station with a rendering of the cafe and the drive-in during its presentation.
“At Tesla we understood from day one that a good service experience is the key to electric vehicle adoption,” Tinucci said.
He said the company spent a lot of time thinking about what it means to think about charging outside the home and that Tesla wants to make sure it is providing “amazing charging experiences.”
At the moment it is not known when this drive-in movie theater, restaurant and gas station will open its doors in West Hollywood.
Old Route 66 was launched in 1926 and was completely paved four years later. It originally ended in downtown Los Angeles, but in 1936 it was extended to Santa Monica and now passes through the West Hollywood section of the city.
Musk’s gas station will join other Route 66 landmarks in nearby West Hollywood, including Mels Drive-In, a home-cooking joint with a tableside jukebox located in a rare American-style building. Googie on Sunset Strip. Previously, the venue was home to Ben Franks, a meeting place for rock and roll stars such as Frank Zappa and Bob Dylan in the 1960s and 1970s.