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Delivery process - diary and opinions

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markwj

Asia Pacific
Moderator
Apr 10, 2011
4,681
1,380
Hong Kong
My paperwork finalising (payment $$$) is currently scheduled for Friday 8th August, with vehicle delivery scheduled for Wednesday 13th August. I'm gonna use this thread to document the process I am going through, and share what I learn.

For registration number, I checked a couple of online sites (www.xx118.com.hk and www.92299222.com) but all the EV-prefix number are gone (surprise, surprise). I got EV915 for HK$6,000 four years ago. Nothing else they have interests me (not even the XX 168 number for HK$1.68million!). I guess this time I'll just get a standard registration and worry about it later.

I'll need to sort out Autotoll, but can't do that until I have the registration documents. Similar for HKEV. Both are pretty quick and I hardly ever use my HKEV dongle for my Roadster anyway (why can't they just use Octopus like everyone else). I guess I can skip on the application for Caltex Fuel card :wink:

My home charging station is all done and ready. I was part of the early test program for the wall connector so it has been up on the wall for a couple of months already and Tesla have brought cars round twice to test it.

Tesla App (US store) is installed and ready on my iPhone.

The book has been purchased, and will arrive tomorrow.

I still need to order an iPhone mount from proclip (I get all my mounts from them). They take about a week, so I'll need to get that done asap.

My car paperwork should be pretty simple. A standard 85kWh car with black paintwork, and no custom registration. For Friday, I'm told I'll need:

  • HKID
  • Proof of address (within 3 months)
  • Insurance cover note (coverage starting on day of payment, not delivery)
  • Payment

For insurance, I'm using Liberty. I have two cars currently with them - a Tesla Roadster ($$$) and a Nissan piece-of-crap-drives-like-a-boat ($), both under comprehensive 60% NCB. Two options for insurance - plead for a copy of the 60% NCB to the new car (up to the insurance company whether they'll do that, depending on history with you) or transfer the 60% NCB from the Nissan to the Model S and re-insure the Nissan as 0% NCB. Arranging this with Liberty was simple and painless, and I now have in hand the insurance cover note (30 days from 8th August 2014). The cover note doesn't mention vehicle license plate number (as I don't have it), but just uses the VIN from my delivery dashboard as the chassis number. Payment needs to be made after I have the registration document from the transport department.

Proof of address is a hassle (transport department want originals, but everything nowadays is electronic), but doable.

Only issue is the money. I don't have a final invoice, so am just estimating as the amount Tesla shows on the confirmation paperwork, less HK$17k early reservation protection from price-hike, less HK$39,000 deposit. I'll write the cheque at the time, when they give me the final amount due. It is gonna be a shockingly big cheque - not as bad as the roadster, but still more than my first house.

So, today is P-5 and D-10 - the countdown starts.
 
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Good work, Mark. We don't all need to make the same mistakes so you go ahead and make them so we can avoid!

Proof of address, could that be a letter from the bank? I could just take a letter from a promotional offer with my address on - would that do? And you are so right, more and more is electronic.
 
Mark, could one use the vehicle registration record as proof of address? You owned two vehicles so the TD should have record of where you live. If this works, let me know. My sister and brother each has three gas cars (yuck!) in which they don't have to do much of dig-ups to proof they live there.
 
Mark, could one use the vehicle registration record as proof of address? You owned two vehicles so the TD should have record of where you live. If this works, let me know. My sister and brother each has three gas cars (yuck!) in which they don't have to do much of dig-ups to proof they live there.

I seem to remember a document somewhere on TD website. Acceptable things hare utility bills (not mobile phone), tax, rates, bank statements (printed by bank), etc. I normally use gas (natural, not petrol :) bill.
 
I seem to remember a document somewhere on TD website. Acceptable things hare utility bills (not mobile phone), tax, rates, bank statements (printed by bank), etc. I normally use gas (natural, not petrol :) bill.

But if you say original, Mark, are they going to keep it and sit forever and get excited about your electricity usage or tax payments? Normally, these originals, intended for the recipient only, is something that you want to keep yourself on file. And "bank statement", does it actually have to give out what is in your accounts, or could it be one of these "personal" offers from the bank, where it has your name and address in the letterhead? As long as they don't apply for a loan, on my behalf, then I have plenty of those to spare.
 
They just inspect it and then hand it back to you.

Oh that's very kind of them. No problem then.

Thank you for your reporting, Mark. I wish TM would gather all this information and issue a detailed step-by-step instruction, as well as FAQ of sorts, to any new buyer. Did you receive any information from TM, or is it based on what you know already?

For my part: It's the first car I will own in HK. I have a personal license plate registration paper, waiting to be applied to this car. Fortunately, the auction was delayed so much as well, so it doesn't expire until next year (you have one year from auction date, to put it on a car, or you have to start all over). In true HK Gov style, it takes about a half a year to a year from you submit a request of a license plate, until auction day. And not all applications are honoured, you might have to try more than once.
 
P-2 and D-7

Three and a half years down, and one week to go.

For registration number, I checked a couple of online sites (www.xx118.com.hk and www.92299222.com) but all the EV-prefix number are gone (surprise, surprise). I got EV915 for HK$6,000 four years ago. Nothing else they have interests me (not even the XX 168 number for HK$1.68million!). I guess this time I'll just get a standard registration and worry about it later.

Ok, I know I said I was gonna use a standard registration, but...

A friend eMailed me about this site: www.96662888.com. Another 'lucky number' site, but this one had EV914 up for sale. Not just an EV plate, but an EV plate sequentially next to my roadster's EV915. Wouldn't that look nice on a Model S parked next to my roadster? Come on, who could resist? Not me.

So, I get a fluent Cantonese speaking friend to call them up to negotiate a discount (if I called them up, it would probably end up more expensive), and a quick trip to transport department this morning. It is not the first time I've done this, but the mechanism is fascinating to see. I continue to be amazed about how efficient things can be here in Hong Kong. The process was as follows:

  • Turn up at Cheung Sha Wan government offices. Park in the basement, and plug in my roadster for a top-up 220V@13A courtesy of the government. Go early to avoid the queues - for me, mid morning works well.
  • Transport Department is on the second floor, and the nice lady handling 96662888.com had set up office on a corner worktop right inside the transport department. She had a stack of forms ready for completion, and an even bigger stack of vehicle registration documents (supposedly they have 4,000+ "vehicles" with numbers for sale).
  • Hand over ID card and proof-of-address (good job I brought the proof-of-address - they hadn't asked for it on the phone, but I brought it anyway and it turned out I needed it).
  • Sign a form to "buy" the car and transfer ownership to me. Sign another form to apply to transfer the registration number to myself (the new owner of the vehicle). Sign a third form to "sell" the car and transfer back to the lucky number company. I'm beginning to feel like an auto dealer.
  • She says 'wait a while', and hands the documents (plus my ID and proof-of-address) to her colleague already in the queue (and near the front, as he had started queuing as soon as I turned up, and before the paperwork was done).
  • Five minutes later, my ID card and proof-of-address get back to me.
  • Five minutes after that, a "Certificate of retention of Registration Mark" is in, and a bunch of cash (cash only) has left, my hands. I've got one year to apply this to a vehicle, or I lose it (I only need a week).
  • 20 minutes, start to finish, in and out.

So, should be ready for Friday now. I've got ID card, insurance covernote, EV914 registration, proof of address, and a big bill to pay.

P.S. If anybody wants it, that same company has the custom plate "EV" up for sale - a cool HK$480,000. Not. Worth. It. (except, perhaps, to a certain founder of Twitter).
 
P-1 and D-6

I still need to order an iPhone mount from proclip (I get all my mounts from them). They take about a week, so I'll need to get that done asap.

The Proclip system is pretty cool - I've been using them for years, in a variety of cars. Very stable and very simple. The system is two-part - a mount that goes on the car (presenting a flat mounting surface, well secured to the car), and a device mount (with a bunch of options for different devices and power arrangements).

For Model S, they have two vehicle mounts available:

A high-up mount on the vent at the top of the 17" screen:
proclip_models_1.jpg


A low-down mount at the bottom of the 17" screen:
proclip_models_2.jpg


They have support for the RHD Model S for both options.

When you connect the two parts together, it looks something like this:
proclip_models_3.jpg


I couldn't decide between the two, so in the end ordered both (about HK$230 each). I reckon I'll end up using the high-up one, but will wait and see. Nice thing about the two-part system is that my current iPhone 5 device holder will work just fine with the new mount, and when Apple releases iPhone 6 (Sep 9th), I can just replace the device holder part.

Only issue is that they are back-ordered. Oh well...
 
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Guys, make sure you fill in the TD form EXACTLY like your proof of address, word by word(e.g. don't fill in building/mansion name if the proof of ad haven't, same goes with district/city etc), and you can't fill in English and use a Chinese ad proof. Otherwise TD will give you a hard time... and delaying your registration big time. And it has to be the same in your Tesla invoice also.
 
P-DAY and D-5

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1407466517.320535.jpg


Fairly painless (despite the size of the cheque) - 15 mins in and out. All the forms were ready, so all I had to do was sign in a bunch of places and hand over the cheque. I get the feeling that they've worked out what is required and now have a process in place with the transport department so things should be smoother - thanks to the signature deliveries for giving them that experience. That said, mine should be the first production car, so fingers crossed.

The Tesla facility itself is pretty impressive. It's got a proper showroom, complete with Tesla apparel and mugs. Kind of wish I still had babies that fit the zero-emission onesies (DITB?). Round back is the service centre and delivery area.

5 more days...
 
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P+1 and D-4

The countdown continues...

The book has been purchased, and will arrive tomorrow.

My wife is a book-o-phile (bibliophile), and the car is going to be primarily for her, so this book seemed an obvious choice gift. It is called "Owning Model S - The Definitive Guide to Buying and Owning the Tesla Model S" and is written by long-time Model S owner and forum member Nick Howe. If I had to summarize the book in one word, that word would be thorough.

The book is most useful in the pre-purchase stage of ownership. It goes through the terminology and history of the car in incredible detail, and then describes each and every available option. I do worry it will grow out of date quickly, as new options appear; so get the book, make your decisions, and move on. Trying to use today's edition of this book in two or three years time is not going to be helpful, but for here and now it covers 95% of the car today. Just supplement it with regional information from this TMC forum, and you should be fine.

The book doesn't cover much from an on-going ownership point of view, but with this car all you really need to do is keep it plugged in whenever you can, and call the excellent Tesla service for anything else. There is a troubleshooting section in the book with a good summary of the most common problems, and the DIY-capable should be able to resolve some simple issues with this.

For those owners new to the car, I highly recommend it. For those who have been lurking/active on these forums for years, you won't learn much new, but you will enjoy the pictures.

View attachment 56034
 
P+1 and D-4

The countdown continues...



My wife is a book-o-phile (bibliophile), and the car is going to be primarily for her, so this book seemed an obvious choice gift. It is called "Owning Model S - The Definitive Guide to Buying and Owning the Tesla Model S" and is written by long-time Model S owner and forum member Nick Howe. If I had to summarize the book in one word, that word would be thorough.

...

For those owners new to the car, I highly recommend it. For those who have been lurking/active on these forums for years, you won't learn much new, but you will enjoy the pictures.

I am about a third into the book. I thought I had to have this book. Informative, though until the point I am now very basic and I would say - really good for someone who don't have much experience or knowledge of electric cars. I might keep it as (yet another) collectors item - and won't make the final verdict until I'm entirely done reading it.
 
Personally I found the verification is almost non-existent. If you can tell the appointment time and the surname, they don't demand any IDs. Oh well maybe it's just me.

One more thing to remember is to buy the 10A German made mobile connector which plugs into the usual sockets (most malls only have this for the time being). The included charging cable don't have any adapters. Costs $3,700, and they can only accept cash/cheque at this moment.