Construction for Tesla’s supercharger restaurant and drive-in theater in Hollywood is underway. Documents shared with the city say the restaurant will be open 24 hours a day with two movie screens and about 30 electric vehicle supercharging stations. Alex Rozier reports for the NBC4 News on Jan. 15, 2024.
If you’ve taken a trip down Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood in recent weeks, you may have noticed the futuristic development currently under construction.
Tesla is working to build a 24-hour restaurant with two movie screens and around 30 electric vehicle supercharging stations.
Tesla has said very little about the development publicly, but in documents shared with the city they suggest the movie screens will show short films – roughly 30 minutes or the amount of time required to charge an electric vehicle.
Hannah Burns lives nearby and is excited about the project.
"I feel like it's pretty smart. Everyone around here has electric cars, so I can't imagine that it wouldn't be a good idea," Burns said. "I think it will be beneficial and just kind of encourage more people to switch to electric."
But others are more skeptical. Ridge Rose has questions about how it may impact traffic on an already busy street, and he feels for the neighbors too.
"Like if you live here in this apartment, I'm so sorry but you’re catching a lot of light. I hope you close your blinds because this is going to cause a lot of traction right here and parking is already not the best in LA," Rose said.
Elon Musk first floated a similar idea in 2018 when he posted on X about his hopes to put an old school drive-in, roller skates and rock restaurant at one of the new Tesla Supercharger locations in LA.
Though it's unclear if this concept is a result of that vision, some say supercharging hubs are needed as more and more electric vehicles get on the road.
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"Now there's a couple of one or two charging stations or maybe three tops in an underground parking facility, or they are in the parking lot in the gym that I go to, but if they are filled, what do you do?," Fred Lemke said. "This is really an attempt to solidify the use of electric cars in our society as opposed to the regular gas stations that we have for regular gas cars."
NBC4 attempted to reach out to Tesla for comment, but did not hear back. At this point it is not known when the supercharging restaurant and movie theater may open.
