The electric vehicle juggernaut is looking at a 60,000 square foot section on the east side of the mall which formerly housed The Bay and Home Outfitters. Photo credit: Cadillac Fairview
Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla is planning on opening their largest retail and service centre in Canada at Hamilton’s CF Lime Ridge Mall.
The automaker is eyeing a 60,000 square foot location on the east side of the mall which formerly housed The Bay and Home Outfitters. The space is already an existing part of the building.
In addition to a showroom, the location will be used for basic service work including “software updates, tire replacement, tire balancing, alignment, paintless bolt-on panel replacement and/or dent removal, topping off of water and/or refrigerant to cool the battery, and the occasional battery replacement.”
Tesla has already signed a non-binding letter of intent with mall owners Cadillac Fairview, but Tesla still needs to obtain a minor variance permit from the City of Hamilton to proceed.
The minor variance will be considered at the City of Hamilton Committee of Adjustment meeting held on February 2, 2023.
If approved, the Hamilton Tesla location would be open seven days a week and create approximately 50 jobs. Currently, the closest Tesla service centre to Hamilton is located in Oakville.
Construction work would begin within a few weeks of approval, with the opening date expected to be in early 2024.
Although it is somewhat unusual for an automobile service centre to be located within a shopping mall, “Tesla vehicles do not have internal combustion engines (ICEs), thus vehicles do not have fuel tanks, use oil, exhaust systems, transmission or many of the other components that require the storage and use of hazardous materials on site or traditional vehicle ventilation.”
Interestingly, there is a historical connection between Tesla (the person) and the City of Hamilton.
Hamilton was the first major Canadian city to have alternating current (AC) electrical power, an invention that was made by the Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla. Tesla, who died in 1943, consulted on Hamilton’s electrical power project and visited the city when it was being constructed.
Hamiltonians may also remember that part of Hamilton’s Burlington Street was renamed Nikola Tesla Boulevard in 2016, celebrating the city’s status as the first in Canada to use this technology. Nikola Tesla Boulevard is also a QEW highway exit.
The automobile company Tesla was created in 2003, well after Nikola Tesla’s death, but was named after him as its cars use AC induction motors.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
