HIGH POINT, N.C. (WGHP) — High Point may soon be home to the Triad’s first Tesla dealership, another piece in the growing puzzle of North Carolina’s burgeoning electric vehicle market.

The High Point Enterprise first reported that the EV manufacturer was considering a 5.7-acre property at 2620 N. Main St. to become a Tesla store and service center. Tom Terrell, the attorney representing Woodhaven Development Group, confirmed the report.

The location is planned to primarily handle servicing and vehicle deliveries.

Among the first steps toward making the new location a reality will be rezoning the property. Woodhaven submitted an application to have the property rezoned from retail center to conditional zoning general business. Terrell expects the High Point Planning and Zoning Commission to hear the request in March.

Tesla, headed by billionaire Elon Musk, currently has two other stores and service centers in North Carolina. There is a location at 7101 Glenwood Ave. in Raleigh, and another at 9140 E. Independence Boulevard in Matthews, outside Charlotte.

Tesla’s interest in North Carolina comes amid several ongoing EV-related projects in North Carolina.

Toyota is constructing a manufacturing facility for electric vehicle batteries at the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite, announced in December 2021. VinFast plan to build electric SUVs in Chatham County, and the microchip manufacturer Wolfspeed in Chatham County is set to expand.

The Economic Investment Committee of the NC Department of Commerce approved incentives earlier this month to lure the newly created Kempower Inc. to build a manufacturing facility for electric-vehicle charging stations in Durham.

Under the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, North Carolina is scheduled to receive $16 million this year and $109 million from the $5 billion being invested nationally in the next five years to establish charging stations along interstate highways. Some of those funds were released earlier than expected.

The NC Department of Transportation published its deployment plan on Aug. 1 to expand on the existing 2,655 charging ports, and this acceleration will provide $39.4 million toward that process. That’s a 2-phase project that builds out first along what officials like to call Alternate Fuel Corridors (or AFCs).

Those corridors essentially are existing interstate highways (I-40, I-85, I-73 and I-74 in the Piedmont Triad), and the state’s plan calls for Phase 1 to begin last October with public listening sessions to expand the number of program-compliant stations along the designated AFCs in North Carolina.