A showroom and service center isn’t the only Tesla project in the works for Manteca.
A fourth Tesla SuperCharger station is planned plus what would be a first for the region, a Tesla battery changeout facility.
Should the showroom and service deal for 3.7 acres on city-owned property on Atherton Drive west of Living Spaces proceed, it will be big not just for Manteca and Tesla but San Joaquin County as a whole.
First, the location.
The proposed showroom-dealership with freeway exposure would be a rarity for California even though 35 percent of all electric vehicles in the USA are registered in the Golden State.
And the dealership wouldn’t be in motion if it wasn’t for the fact Tesla — which has a reputation for making laser-focused strategic moves — hadn’t zeroed in on Manteca for a battery replacement facility.
It is working to secure a battery replacement location in the Manteca Industrial Park, the same industrial park where buses picking up and dropping San Joaquin County workers at the Tesla auto assembly plant in Fremont turn around daily to access a loading zone long South Main Street in front of Walmart.
Manteca is at the center of a 25-mile radius of 900,000 consumers with communities that have a lot of existing Tesla owners. That includes Mountain House where Tesla is the unofficial vehicle of choice given it’s hard to find a driveway or a garage that doesn’t have a Tesla.
Given they were looking to locating a battery replacement center here, Tesla thought a service center/showroom would make sense.
The real estate concern on Tesla’s side was familiar with the City of Manteca’s agressive efforts to pursue commercial development given the municipality has — between the family entertainment zone and other parcels — in excess of 110 acres of prime land long the 120 Bypass corridor.
The site Tesla wants was acquired by the city two years ago for $2.2 million given it was an odd-shaped triangle parcel that would need aggressive marketing if it were ever to develop.
It also happened to include ideal freeway placement for an OutFront Media LED billboard deal that will bring the city a minimum of $300,000 annually.
It helped that Kia Country is moving forward with a new dealership just to the east on Atherton.
Kia Country, that owns the building and land where their current Manteca dealership is on Northgate Drive at North Main, is already reportedly working to find a replacement tenant that is auto-related.
The new shopping center that Kia will be adjacent to on Atherton and where the four-story Wood Springs Suites opened earlier this year is where Manteca’s fourth Tesla SuperCharger station will be located.
This is a big deal for several reasons. Tesla clearly has data on where the vehicles they sell are garaged and the corridors heavily traveled by EVs.
The siting of a Tesla SuoperCharger station in the new center may also be a first for Tesla as it will give the company three SuperCharger stations within 1.25 miles of each other. The others are in front of Bass Pro Shops at the Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley and next to the Sizzler at Airport Way and Daniels Street.
Manteca’s fourth SuperCharger station is near Target on Spreckels Avenue.
Tesla is also the second largest private sector employer in San Joaquin County behind Amazon.
There were more than 1,100 workers were tallied in mid-2024 at Tesla’s various Lathrop operations including is mega battery pack factory to excess power off the grid and its various auto-related endeavors.
As of Thursday, Tesla has 100 plus openings at all of its facilities across the county including Tracy and Stockton although the bulk are in Lathrop.
Tesla has more than 22,000 jobs across the Bay Area with the bulk being at the Fremont assembly plant that includes a healthy number of Northern San Joaquin Valley residents many of who take the Tesla buses.
Tesla’s market share of the California market in terms of EV sales is 43.9 percent.
EV sales last year accounted for 25.4 percent of all new vehicles sold in the Golden State or one of every four.
The growth being racked up each year in Manteca, Lathrop, Mountain House, and Tracy that includes a lot of people very open to driving EVs. It also helps that the four cities along with Stockton constitute the fastest growing “super commuter” market in the United States where people drive 90 minutes or more wash way to work.
There is, of course, the buying power represented by the new households established with robust Bay Area paychecks.
Toss in the greater Northern San Joaquin Valley region and the 120 Bypass that plays an oversized role in the commute as well as leisure travel to the Sierra and Yosemite as well as the 100-mile market and you can see why the 6 mile stretch of freeway between Interstate 5 and Highway 99 is popping up in the radar of Tesla and others currently exploring options.
It’s why Manteca landed Bass Pro Shops, the 500-room Great Wolf Resort, and Living Spaces.
