Wanna check out Tesla's new Model S sedan? Don't go looking for a dealership along some suburban highway. You won't find one. Instead, try your local shopping mall.

If you're wondering who goes to a mall to buy a car, the answer is "nobody." At least not yet.

And that's the point, says George Blankenship, who formerly helped create Apple's chain of retail stores and who is now leading Tesla's sales strategy.

"We want to engage with people when they're not thinking about buying a car," he said.

At the mall, shoppers' defenses aren't up, he said, and they're more willing to listen and ask questions. Customers are invited to mill about, open doors, put their kids inside the cars and take pictures.

Tesla's mall stores differ from traditional auto dealerships in a number of other ways, too. For one, you won't be able to haggle over the price.

The salespeople themselves won't be typical auto salespeople, either. They won't be paid on commission and most of them won't have prior experience selling cars, Blankenship said.

"The people in our stores are more likely to be from Nordstrom's than from a car dealer," he said.

Compared to ordinary car dealerships, the Tesla stores are tiny -- just big enough to fit a couple of display models -- since there will be no inventory kept there.

Tesla doesn't need inventory because it operates on a build-to-order basis. Once ordered, the car is built and then delivered directly to the customer. Test drive cars will be kept, charged and ready to go, out in mall parking areas.