Tesla Expanding In Sarasota County: Report

SARASOTA, FL — Tesla plans to expand its presence in Sarasota by building a 55,000-square-foot facility in the University Town Center area, just off I-75, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported.

The company, run by investor and CEO Elon Musk, already operates a showroom in the Mall at University Town Center and a service center at 5231 McIntosh Road.

Tesla also recently announced that it will build a new regional service center in Fort Myers to assist its electric car customers in Collier, Lee and Charlotte counties, according to the News-Press.

In the second quarter of 2020, there were more than 60,000 light-duty electric vehicles registered in the Sunshine State, according to data from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

In a survey of electric vehicle owners that year, 26 percent of respondents were from the West Central region of Florida, which includes Sarasota and Manatee counties.

In the first half of 2021, there were just over 58,000 electric vehicles registered in Florida — the state with the second-highest amount, just behind California, which had 425,000 EVS registered, Inside EVs reported.

That number appears to have increased since then, with nearly 96,000 EVs registered in Florida as of December 2021, the Herald-Tribune reported.

It’s a number that will likely just get bigger. Florida Power and Light has estimated that the number of electric vehicles in its service area could increase to nearly 600,000 by 2030, according to WUSF.