European Timeline

[Zorba]

€46k for a Golf? Are you serious?

Let us hope pricing follows this week indeed...

[Eikrokei]

€46k for a Golf? Are you serious?

For a decently, but not all that well, specced 1,4l 122hp Golf that sounds about right, if you're willing to go for the 85hp model with no options they can be had for as cheap as €33k. You don't want to know what the GTI and R versions cost, really, you don't!

Regarding the European pricing of the Model S, everything I've heard suggest the prices will be announced sometime this year. In practice that means this week or sometime early next week.

[Brian H]

As production ramps, they've likely opened more paint bays.

Yes, I was saying earlier that even one additional Paint Center would greatly increase options and flexibility. Hopefully that's what's happening. Based on the images of the Paint Center shown earlier, not an insignificant installation project! Including programming the numerous robots in it, and integrating it with the ovens and assembly line(s?).

Love to be a fly on the wall in those planning sessions ...

[AustinPowers]

For a decently, but not all that well, specced 1,4l 122hp Golf that sounds about right, if you're willing to go for the 85hp model with no options they can be had for as cheap as €33k. You don't want to know what the GTI and R versions cost, really, you don't!

Regarding the European pricing of the Model S, everything I've heard suggest the prices will be announced sometime this year. In practice that means this week or sometime early next week.

That's Norway for you.

I have just configured a 2.0l 150hp TDI BlueMotion with AWD and almost every expensive amenity currently available (4-door, Highline, metallic paint, leather seats, top Satnav, "stationary heating" (Standheizung, don't know the correct English expression), tow-hitch, pano-roof, xenon lights with adaptive light assist, rearview camera, adaptive ride control, park assist (auto-parking), full spare wheel, etc.) and it comes to about 42k Euro!

Then again the Model S will be much cheaper in Norway than in Germany.

[Yggdrasill]

Norway is a fairly odd country when it comes to cars. The reality is that while the Model S is a competitor to a BMW M5 in most countries, that's not the case here. Here, the Model S is a quite viable competitor to cars like VW Passat.

A Passat Highline 2.0 170 hp TDI Bluemotion 6-speed DSG costs $75k, while a well specced 85 kWh Model will cost around $80k. The Model S will save you around $25k over 125k miles in diesel, $3k in annual fees over 8 years. Assuming the insurance, maintenance, resale value, etc is the same, the Passat will cost something like $23k more than the Model S over the first 8 years.

[widodh]

Can we please stay ontopic and not let this turn out (again) into a topic how expensive cars are in the north? Not that I don't feel for you guys, but it has been discussed over and over.

Let's stick to the European timeline subject!

[Laumb]

€46k for a Golf? Are you serious?

Let us hope pricing follows this week indeed...

As explained by others following your post, yes, I am serious.

edit:
Sorry widodh, postet while you did.
Lets make a thread for it!

[Yggdrasill]

Okay, back on topic:

- Kjell-Arne Wold, the sales manager at Tesla Oslo, said 6th of December that there are at least 800 Model S reservations in Norway. (In all probability, more than half are clustered around Oslo.)
- He also said, that he expects to sell 1500-2000 Model S in Norway in 2014. (Compared to 1380 BMW 5-series in 2011.)
- As laumb mentioned, two out of three model S in Europe are currently in Oslo, and I got an email yesterday stating that Tesla is extending the visit until the 22. of December, due to popular demand.
- During one of the test drives here, it was said that Tesla will be opening a second service center in Trondheim. This makes Norway the first country in Europe with two service centers.

I think this indicates not only that Norway is important to Tesla, but also that Tesla understands this. So, I suspect that Norway will be prioritized when it comes to deliveries and the like as well. It wouldn't surprise me if Tesla uses Oslo to roll out as many cars as possible as fast as possible, and then use the experiences of those cars to tweak any issues with three-phase charging and such. Norway also has a grid that would be more prone to unveil any issues. (Three phase IT is widespread, but three phase TN is also available. Road salt is also very common, and has caused issues with other EVs.)

[widodh]

I think this indicates not only that Norway is important to Tesla, but also that Tesla understands this. So, I suspect that Norway will be prioritized when it comes to deliveries and the like as well. It wouldn't surprise me if Tesla uses Oslo to roll out as many cars as possible as fast as possible, and then use the experiences of those cars to tweak any issues with three-phase charging and such. Norway also has a grid that would be more prone to unveil any issues. (Three phase IT is widespread, but three phase TN is also available. Road salt is also very common, and has caused issues with other EVs.)

When I spoke to GeorgeB in May this year he told me that Tesla was going to open their European distribution center in the Netherlands and to final assembly (marriage of battery and car?) here and then ship them into Europe.

Probably due to the port of Rotterdam and infrastructure to reach the rest of Europe.

That of course doesn't mean that NL will get the first Model S in Europe, we might see them driving over our highways with destination Norway while we just wait for our "Finalize" button in our My Tesla account.

[ChrisgG]

I think this indicates not only that Norway is important to Tesla, but also that Tesla understands this. So, I suspect that Norway will be prioritized when it comes to deliveries and the like as well.

The Optimist in me hopes that I'll get my P pretty early as I reserved it like 3 years ago, but then who knows