Tesla Opens First Tesla Diner At California Supercharger Site
Elon Musk made several promises in the late 2010s. He has officially delivered on one of them that is not the $50,000-deposit Roadster. Back in 2018, Musk teased the idea of putting a diner and a drive-in movie theater at a Tesla Supercharger location in Los Angeles. Seven years later, that project has come to fruition. Tesla unveiled the Tesla Diner on Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood.
Tesla
Tesla, Inc. is an American electric vehicle manufacturer largely attributed to driving the EV revolution. Through the Model S and subsequent products, Tesla has innovated and challenged industry conventions on numerous fronts, including over-the-air updates, self-driving technology, and automotive construction methods. Tesla is considered the world’s most valuable car brand as of 2023, and the Model Y the world’s best-selling car in the same year, but the brand’s greatest achievement is arguably the Supercharger network of EV charging stations.
- Founded
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July 1, 2003
- Founder
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Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning
- Headquarters
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Austin, Texas, USA
- Owned By
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Publicly Traded
- Current CEO
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Elon Musk
The Tesla Diner Is A Pricey Slice Of Americana
The Tesla Diner is a Supercharging station featuring 80 V4 Supercharger stalls. Every stall is compatible with all NACS-compatible EVs. A large solar canopy provides shade and helps offset the power draw from the chargers. The facility features a two-story, retro-futuristic diner for 24-hour dining. It has an open-air skypad on the second level and two 66-foot LED “megascreens” for showing movies.
Tesla’s menu offers classic American diner fare, albeit at a price point higher than most diners charge. Items include a $13 hot dog, a $12 egg sandwich, $12 slices of pie, and $11 breakfast tacos. If you’re into health fads, fountain sodas have real cane sugar, and Tesla fries its potatoes in beef tallow. Tesla is also selling Tesla Diner merch, such as a 1:10 scale Tesla Bot action figure and “Supercharged” gummies, which Tesla only supercharged with sugar.
Tesla Diner Prices
|
Diner Club |
$15 |
|
Tuna Melt |
$14 |
|
Tesla Burger |
$13.50 |
|
Fried Chicken and Waffles |
$13.50 |
|
Hot Dog |
$13 |
The Tesla Diner Makes Sense
Perhaps Tesla’s greatest innovation has been dramatically improving the EV charging experience. The Supercharger network is an expansive and trustworthy network with strategically located chargers. It integrates seamlessly with Tesla vehicles and the Tesla smartphone app. It makes EV ownership feel a lot easier.
An overly-priced take on Johnny Rockets is not the most original culinary endeavor. However, the Tesla Diner addresses the next-level part of the infrastructure issue once the chargers are in place: how to make EV charging a better experience. Providing food and entertainment options to a captive audience of people waiting 20-30 minutes to charge their cars feels like a no-brainer. But that’s not how EV infrastructure has developed in much of the country.
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In Michigan, for instance, much of the EV fast-charging infrastructure is associated with big-box retail outlets. Proximity to a store can be convenient if you need to buy toothbrushes or use the restroom. But it’s not a place to entertain or satiate children. And a dimly lit back corner of a Walmart parking lot invisible from the road near a highway interchange is about the last place many people would feel comfortable charging at night.
But There’s Still The Elon Factor
Tesla and Elon Musk’s persona are, at least for now, inextricable. And Musk’s right-wing political activism in the US and elsewhere has hurt the brand’s image and sandbagged its 2025 sales numbers on multiple continents.
Musk has curtailed his government work. And Superchargers have not generated quite the same opprobrium and protests as Tesla retail outlets. However, as a massive, public manifestation of the Tesla brand, the Tesla Diner may still generate considerable backlash. 2025 probably wasn’t the optimal time for Tesla to enter the culinary industry.
