Hawaii Tesla Owners

[ddruz]

I spoke with George Blankenship today at the Get Amped test drives in LA. He said his plan is to have a Tesla service center in Hawaii by the end of the year. He knows it is an excellent potential market. Pretty awesome news for us in Hawaii! Start talking it up with your friends on the island. People making their reservation now will need to wait about a year before getting their car and if George is good to his word there will be a service center on Oahu by the time they get it.

Jkam, Are you sure your info on delivery charge to Hawaii is current? I was originally told it would be the same as the rest of the US also (like it is for most cars sold in HI), but then my rep subsequently told me there would be an added charge for Hawaii. It would be great to nail this down. Since there is a low Sig reservation holder pin on the Oahu map, he/she must have already configured the car so Tesla must have Hawaii delivery costs settled. I emailed my rep a couple weeks ago pointing this out and requesting the details but he said he couldn't find out. So anything anyone knows for certain about total delivery charges to HI would be great.

[solar powered]

ddruz, please point out to Tesla that the other car companies do not have a higher destination charge for deliveries to Hawaii (or Alaska, I imagine). I hope that you were able to get George B's contact info. Or at least ask your rep to bring this to George's personal attention.

[ddruz]

solar powered, I have pointed out to my rep that other car companies do not have higher delivery charges to Hawaii. Just sent him another email about it two days ago and he came back today saying he still thinks they are going to charge us more to Hawaii but he isn't certain yet.

By the way, do you have a pin on the World Map of Model S Reservation Holders? What reservation number are you? How much do you drive? What size battery pack are you planning on?

George's email is no secret: GBlankenship@teslamotors.com. Feel free to email him with important Hawaii info. I have. It's to Tesla's enormous advantage to establish a presence there asap as you know and I'd bet George appreciates selected feedback from Hawaii clients. Model S should dominate the Hawaii premium sedan market place once it gets a toe hold. Tesla really only needs a service center and a few Model S's on the road to totally take over.

[solar powered]

ddruz, Thanks! I will e-mail George and lobby on our behalf regarding the "destination fee." Although Hawaii is a small market, our market penetration percentage is really high. In addition to what the others have mentioned about how many "eyeballs" would get to see the vehicles here. We get so many tourists from the fly-over states, it would definitely be in Tesla's interest to have as many of them zipping around here.
I have production 8,983. As I plan to drive it in Honolulu for at least 10 years, the 40 kWH pack should do. We drive less than 5,000 miles/year and 99% of our daily trips do not exceed 25 miles, even on weekends. If I do decide to retire on the mainland and decide to bring by car along for the sake of sentimentality, I am hoping that a battery, inverter and programming upgrade would be feasible.
I don't know how to get a pin on the World Map

[NigelM]

Welcome to TMC.... \000/

I don't know how to get a pin on the World Map

Instructions are here: World-Map-of-Model-S-Reservation-Holders

[ddruz]

I don't know how to get a pin on the World Map

solar powered, You are already on the world map, twice actually! You might want to delete one of your pins for accuracy sake. It's great to know you. I'm on the North Shore and drive to town quite a bit. I expect the 40 kwh pack would do for me 98% of the time. I have on occasion driven over 160 miles a day so am not completely certain about the 40 kwh yet. For almost everyone closer to town the 40 kwh pack should be more than plenty. No range anxiety on Oahu for a Tesla--absolutely level playing field with all the other premium sedans. Good idea keeping George informed about Hawaii. For those of us who live here the EV market is clearly incredible. For those who don't it may not be so obvious.

[solar powered]

Nigel: thanks!

Ddruz: thanks for the heads up on the duplicate pins. I've asked Robert to eliminate one of them.
I live and work just 2 miles apart, so the 40 kWH is fine for me. I can see how you could occasionally exceed the range of that pack. 160 miles is at a steady 55 mph. Also, the battery range will degrade over time. If I were in your shoes, I would consider getting the 60 kWH/230 mile pack, despite the painful price increase. Ouch!

[ddruz]

solar powered: Looks like they removed both of your pins from the Oahu map. You might want to put one up again.

[spleen]

So am I the first one on this forum to have a Model X reserved in Honolulu?

[ddruz]

So am I the first one on this forum to have a Model X reserved in Honolulu?

Hi spleen, welcome to the forums. I cannot tell you if you are the first one to have reserved a Model X in Honolulu, but way to go! Congratulations. That's awesome.