The Oneida Nation and Tesla are partnering up to open the newest showroom in central New York.
In 2025, Tesla owners and buyers will be able to stop just off Exit 34 on the New York State Thruway for a vehicle charge or service. The Oneida Nation and Tesla reached an agreement to build the company’s first Sales, Service, and Delivery center in the region. Joel Barkin, the vice president of communications for the Oneida Nation, said the partnership shows the nation’s commitment to growth.
“It has been the motto of the Oneida Indian Nation that if you’re not growing, you’re dying,” Barkin said. “So there is a continued commitment to reinvest, to build, to bring people, to bring new opportunities to this area and this is very much in line with that.”
He said the new location will be easier for people in the state to access.
“We are going to be eliminating the obstacles that have existed from upstate New Yorkers to be able to access Tesla and those vehicles,” Barkin said.
As part of a previous agreement between the state and the Oneida Nation, Tesla will give the state’s portion of sales tax on the electric vehicles right back to the Nation. The funds will help support public services in the Oneida Nation like healthcare, environmental conservation and public safety. County sales tax will also stay — John Becker, Madison County Board Chairman said this is a great opportunity for the area’s economy.
“It’s great economic development for our county, we get the sales tax, it’s great economic development in the Oneida Nation for them,” Becker said.
In addition to the new showroom and service center, Tesla will install over one hundred and twenty EV chargers across the Nation’s land.