We have always been proud to call Hawthorne home, so it was especially meaningful to recently welcome the City of Hawthorne and HCTV into our facility for a closer look at what we do.
The City recently shared a short segment featuring Unplugged Performance as part of its local business coverage, giving viewers a quick look inside our Hawthorne headquarters and the different sides of the company that have grown here over the years.
It was a great opportunity to share a little bit of our story with the community, and this is only the beginning. HCTV is also preparing a more extensive Business Beat profile on Unplugged Performance, and we are excited to see the full feature when it is released.
Proudly Built in Hawthorne
Unplugged Performance was founded in Hawthorne in 2013, just down the street from Tesla’s Design Studio and SpaceX.
That location has always felt fitting.
We came from a long background in enthusiast cars through Bulletproof Automotive, and when friends from Tesla began asking us to apply that same approach to their vehicles, we saw an opportunity to help create something new.
At the time, there was barely an aftermarket for electric vehicles.
We decided to go all in.
Since then, Unplugged Performance has grown alongside the Tesla community, developing products and complete vehicle solutions for everything from daily-driven Teslas to race cars, off-road Cybertrucks and law enforcement vehicles.
The Hawthorne segment gives viewers a glimpse into that evolution.
More Than Just Performance Parts
While many people know Unplugged Performance for wheels, suspension, brakes and aerodynamic upgrades, there is a lot happening under one roof.
Our Hawthorne facility is where we install products, service customer cars, diagnose vehicle issues, test new components and support development work across our different programs.
It is also home to teams with very different specialties.
Through our vehicle restyling and protection services, customers can bring their vehicles in for paint protection film, vinyl wraps, detailing, ceramic coatings and window tint.
UP.FIT takes things in a completely different direction, building specialized Tesla police and fleet vehicles for law enforcement agencies across the country, including both Cybertruck and Model Y platforms.
Then there is the part that probably means the most to us as enthusiasts: actually using the cars.
We have always believed that performance parts should be developed by people who drive, test and understand them. That means time at the track, time behind the wheel and plenty of time underneath cars figuring out what can be made better.
Cars, Community and Hawthorne
One of the things we appreciated most about working with the City of Hawthorne was the opportunity to talk about more than just products.
Cars have always been about community for us.
Whether we are helping a customer personalize their Tesla, preparing a vehicle for the track, supporting a police department or introducing someone to motorsports for the first time, there is a human side to what we do that can sometimes get lost behind the parts themselves.
Being able to share that with our local community was something we genuinely enjoyed.
Hawthorne has played an important role in our story from the beginning, and we are proud to continue growing here.
There is something special about building performance vehicles in a city that has become such an important center for aerospace, electric vehicles, engineering and technology. We get to work within that environment every day while still bringing the car enthusiast mindset that started all of this in the first place.
More to Come
The recently aired HCTV segment was a short introduction to Unplugged Performance, but the City of Hawthorne has more coming.
HCTV has announced that a longer Business Beat profile is on the way, which will offer a deeper look at our company, our facility and the people behind the work.
We want to thank HCTV and the City of Hawthorne for spending time with our team and helping share our story.
We had a great time working together on the feature, and we are looking forward to seeing the full coverage.
For now, we are proud to share this first look from our hometown.
