Electric car maker Tesla is coming to Sutherland Shire.
Tesla has purchased a property at 100-104 Parraweena Road, Miranda. The area is commonly known as Taren Point.
The site is next to Cronulla Carpets and was occupied for decades by associated firm Cronulla Furniture and more recently by Bunnings during redevelopment of its Caringbah warehouse.
The property was sold off-market for $15 million in December last year.
Selling agent Trent Gallagher, of commercial real estate firm Colliers International, declined to comment.
The fitting out of the building with a showroom and service centre began early this year, but is being kept under wraps, with windows covered.
Construction company Schiavello has erected its own signage until the project is completed, which is expected to be in about two months.
Schiavello undertook a similar project for Tesla at Chatswood.
Tesla also has a centre at Alexandria and another is on the drawing board for Parramatta.
Tesla has released no information about the Sutherland Shire project and is yet to respond to a request for comment.
Tesla vehicles are produced in California and Shanghai.
Motoring website carsales.com.au reported in January national registration data revealed Tesla sold a record 3430 electric cars in Australia in 2020.
This was a 16.3 per cent increase on the 2950 Tesla cars registered in Australia in 2019.
The number in 2018 was 1005.
"Over the past two years, Tesla sold almost twice as many electric cars in Australia compared with all other electric vehicles combined," carsales.com.au said.
"With Tesla registration data added, it means electric cars accounted for 0.56 per cent of all new motor vehicles sold in Australia in 2020..."
The website caradvice.com.au reported in February this year the first significant batch of Chinese-built Tesla Model 3 electric vehicles - about 800 - had arrived in Port Kembla, according to the online ship-tracker VedaPrime.
"While the production cost of Chinese-built variants is reportedly substantially lower than that of the US-built counterparts, it remains to be seen if these savings will be passed on to local buyers," the website said.
"Last week, entry-level pricing for the Model 3 dropped in Europe, Asia, and the US, however the RRP (recommended retail price) in Australia has remained unchanged since October last year."