on July 21, at 7001 Santa Monica Avenue, Los Angeles, a silver-white UFO building lit up amid neon lights. Tesla’s world’s first super charging station restaurant (Tesla Diner) officially opened, with hundreds of consumers waiting in line 13 hours in advance.
It is reported that the revenue from catering + charging reached US$47,000 within 6 hours, 30% higher than the daily turnover of McDonald’s.
Musk announced that if the Los Angeles store is successful, the model will be replicated in the global highway network and core cities. A 3,000 square meter plot of land has been reserved next to the Pudong Super Factory in Shanghai. It will open around the Spring Festival in 2026, and the price may be 70% of that in the United States.
Tesla’s first super charging restaurant is open 24/7. The restaurant is also equipped with 80 V4 super charging piles, which are open to non-Tesla vehicles.
In addition, the restaurant also sells various Tesla brand products, such as Optimus robot (Optimus) dolls and Tesla restaurant themed T-shirts. In a recent trial operation, Tesla’s Sky-Looking Robot was also found delivering popcorn. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that in the future, Tesla restaurants may appear in super charging stations in major cities and long-distance routes around the world.
The appearance design of Tesla’s first restaurant is inspired by the 1950s car theater, with a silver curved shape, like a parked UFO. The restaurant not only provides catering services, but also has an outdoor movie screen and a Tesla super charging station, which facilitates car owners to charge their vehicles while dining.
In fact, Tesla has a long-standing idea of entering the catering industry. As early as 2017, Tesla’s then Chief Technology Officer (CTO) JB Straubel said at a meeting that Tesla may enter the catering industry. Later, Musk also said in January 2018 that Tesla plans to open an “old drive-in, roller skates and rock restaurant” at a new Tesla supercharger station in Los Angeles.
In May 2022, Tesla formally submitted documents to the Los Angeles Municipal Government, requiring the opening of a 24-hour Tesla restaurant at 7001 Santa Monica Avenue in Hollywood.
Some analysts believe that Tesla’s main purpose of building a restaurant is to transform charging waiting into a compound scene of dining, movie viewing and socializing through the combination of “charging + catering + movie viewing”, providing car owners with convenient energy replenishment scenarios, and at the same time strengthening the dissemination of brand culture.
