Click for a high-res gallery of Tesla’s Menlo Park Store Rumors and promises of a Midwest Tesla Motors store have been in the air for years now . These rumors don’t make the official announcement of a Chicago sales and service center scheduled to open this spring any less exciting. In fact, considering the recent slight fall from grace that Tesla has suffered, confirmation or future growth is a great thing. Chicago is only the first of seven new retail locations that are planned for 2009. The other cities on the list include: London, Manhattan, Miami, Seattle and, further ahead, Washington, D.C. and Munich, Germany. If everything goes well – and we know it won’t, but we can still hope for smooth progress – then the new retail locations will be the spearhead for the Model S , which will be unveiled in a few short weeks. In the official announcement about the Chicago store (Car Blog Greenit after the jump), Tesla CEO, Chairman and Product Architect Elon Musk said, “Tesla has no intention of being a niche automaker. The Chicago store will introduce the company to even more people in the United States and position us to launch a more affordable sedan for mainstream drivers.” At the very least, tourists will soon have something to snap pictures of in the Windy City other than the Sears Tower and the Bean. Gallery: Tesla Motors Menlo Park Store [Source: Tesla Motors] Continue reading Officially, official: Tesla Motors store coming to Chicago Auto Blog: EV/Plug-in , Tesla Motors , Green Daily Officially, official: Tesla Motors store coming to Chicago originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green

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Officially, official: Tesla Motors store coming to Chicago