Greenville, Alabama, is a small city of about 8,000 right off I-65, south of Montgomery. It’s best known for Bates House of Turkey, a popular lunch stop on the way down to the white-sand beaches of the Gulf Coast. It’s also an important stop on the map for Tesla owners.

During a business trip, I happened to stay at the Greenville Hampton Inn. Arriving late at night, I saw a phalanx of gleaming white sentinels standing beneath the humming lights of the parking lot. My first reaction was to wonder if aliens had established a spaceport in Greenville. (It wouldn’t be unreasonable for Bates’s turkey to have an interstellar cult following.) Upon further inspection, I noticed the word “TESLA” in red letters on each of the six slender machines.