Tesla to open its first Korean showroom on November 29th

The U.S.-based electric carmaker Tesla Motors will open its first Korean showroom at the Starfield Hanam shopping mall in Gyeonggi Province, Nov. 29.

A Starfield Hanam official said he received an in-house notice of the Tesla showroom opening date.

“However, the opening date may be moved up or delayed depending on Tesla’s preparations,” he added.

Starfield Hanam, which had its grand opening on Sept. 9, is the largest shopping complex in Korea built as a joint venture between retail giant Shinsegae and U.S.-based shopping mall management company Taubman’s regional affiliate Taubman Asia.

Before the grand opening, Tesla said Aug. 31 in a press release it would open its first Korean showroom on the second floor of the mall.

The showroom is currently under construction, covered with a screen to hide the interior. However, Tesla has reportedly completed the ground construction for a charging station on the mall’s second-floor parking lot.

The showroom will present Tesla’s Model S 90D, a full-size all-electric five-door luxury sedan.

When the model was introduced in 2012, it received a perfect 5.0 from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) car safety rating. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official range for the 2012 Model S equipped with an 85kWh battery pack is 426 kilometers.

Tesla’s official webpage said the current Model S 90D’s range is 512 kilometers.

Tesla has already received approval for emissions and noise standards from the Ministry of Environment, and is preparing for another approval with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT). It is expected to take about two weeks to get MOLIT approval.

Tesla is also preparing to open its second Korean showroom in Gangnam, southern Seoul.

It reportedly signed a lease to rent a building in Cheongdam-dong on Sept. 1. It will use the building’s basement, first and second floors until Aug. 31, 2021.

The Gangnam showroom is also currently under construction and Tesla officials visited the site last week to monitor the construction process.

Tesla also announced last week via an email interview with ZDNet Korea, an IT-focused online newspaper, its plan to establish charging infrastructure in Korea.

“Tesla is reviewing its plan to build a few supercharging stations in Seoul,” Atsuko Doi, Tesla’s head of communications for Asia Pacific, was quoted as saying.

“We are discussing how to rent the sites for the charging stations.”