MISSION, Texas – It was Tesla Time Saturday at the Center for Education and Economic Development in Mission, Texas.
Eighteen Tesla cars were on show at a tech expo hosted by Mission Economic Development Corporation. Some of the owners of the Tesla vehicles took some of the car show attendees out for a spin.
Teclo Garcia, CEO of Mission EDC explained: “We decided a few months ago that we wanted to put on something in the summer, an event that was kind of new to the market and something that no one had done before. There are plenty of car shows out there but we decided to do a Tesla-focused show. And one of the primary reasons we did it is, we want to be associated with that brand.”
Garcia said having Tesla at the CEED building was good fit. He said that ever since the facility was launched by Alex Meade and Daniel Silva it has been technology-based.
“We’ve had a lot of CompTIA and IT classes here. We’ve done all kinds of technology programs. And so as we got back, after COVID, and now we’ve got our (EDC) team in place, we wanted to start that back up. And so it was a natural for us to reach out to Tesla and say, hey, you haven’t done a car show in South Texas that we know of. Would you be interested in they were absolutely interested.”
Garcia pointed out that Tesla does not consider themselves an auto manufacturer but rather a technology company. He said the three Rio Grande Valley zip codes with the most Tesla owners are 78504 in north McAllen, 78539, in south Edinburg, and 78572 in Mission.
“And so we thought, well, we’ve got plenty of (Tesla) owners, let’s try to get something together. So it’s our first try at it and we’re very happy. We’re also made it sort of a Tesla slash Tech Expo. We’ve got STC (South Texas College) here and other other tech programs. We’ve got some folks doing VR (virtual reality) as well and we’ve got the Trek Bicycle store here in Mission that has all their e-bike models.”
Garcia added: “This is just kind of a fun thing to do.”
Editor’s Note: In the attached audio interview, Mission EDC CEO Teclo Garcia discusses the Tesla event, the presence of UT-Rio Grande Valley at the CEED building, and building broadband in Mission.
Audio
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