[THE INVESTOR] Tesla announced Thursday that it will open a retail location in the nation’s largest shopping mall later this year.

The American automotive company said its first store will be in Shinsegae Group’s Starfield Hanam mall in Gyeonggi Province and more shops are expected to open in 2017 and 2018 in other Shinsegae locations.

Tesla plans to expand its partnership with the retail giant to accelerate its charging infrastructure.

“Shinsegae will support the rapid deployment of the Tesla destination charging network for customer use, with an objective to reach 25 locations by the end of the first half of 2017,” Tesla’s spokesperson Atsuko Doi said.

Tesla destination charging locations will be installed across the Shinsegae Group retail portfolio, such as Shinsegae department stores, E-mart stores, Shinsegae Simon premium outlets, Starfield premium shopping mall, Chosun Hotel and Starbucks.

“Shinsegae will provide another differentiated experience for customers due to the partnership with Tesla,” said Jang Jae-young, the CEO of Shinsegae Department Store.

“We will remain a top trend-leading company by bringing unique content that inspires customers to change their lifestyles.”

Tesla plans to enter the Korean market with its premium electric sedan the Model S and later in 2017 with the SUV-type Model X.

The US electric carmaker entered South Korea in December by setting up Tesla Korea Limited and appointing Todd Maron as general counsel at Tesla Motors and Susan Repo as director at Tesla Financial Services.

Tesla began to hire employees to work for its Korean office through job openings on its website in June and opened a homepage in Korean in August to receive pre-orders for its Model S, Model X and Model 3.


By Shin Ji-hye/The Korea Herald (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)