#114 for sale for cheap on eBay (located in UK)

I could see buying this if you had a friend in the UK who could check out the car and take delivery of it. I wonder if you would have to pay any import duties on it to "import" it back to the United States.

 

Yes, I have heard the story of this car for a while. I also heard that the seller was a bit odd, so if you embark on this journey, be prepared for it to be 'interesting'.

 

Yes he is maybe a bit odd, Barry is a great EV lover. A few years back I spoke a few times with him and he was all exited about his car and especial his RAV4EV. He imported his tesla and got it all converted for GB by tesla he said. It got new head lights and a few other bytes and bits to get it GB road legal. Back then tesla was not really here yet and people imported them from the already existing US second hand marked. Tesla still support grey import 1.5 roadster over here in EU as they do mine, maybe sometimes regretting it, contrasting not servicing import model S cars.
If someone is interested in getting a roadster for cash there is still some money for a road trip with the car in Europe for that money.

 

Happy to go check it out if anyone needs me to.

I'd love to go see his Rav4 again. I almost bought it from the last owner but he was ahead of me in the queue.

 

That's $10k under market price so if someone in the US wants it, you'd still be well ahead of the game after shipping.

 

I see that you found a Roadster! Congrats. Any pics to share?

 

I have an accepted offer on this car, hopefully all goes well and it will be back "home" (in the USA) soon!

Very excited about the opportunity to use it for some testing and get more hands-on experience with another Roadster!

 

Great news, good luck on the transaction and shipping. Ensure they pull the ESS service disconnect before shipping or at least have it charged up well. I'd have the service disconnect pulled myself.

 

The problem with that is most/all shippers charge significantly more if the car isn't in running and driving condition, and you can't count on them to know how to get it working again after you pull that disconnect. So it might be best to charge in Range mode to 100% just before they pick it up and know that it'll make it here in a few weeks with some juice left. I am new to the Roadster world but I'd hope that a 100% range mode charge would keep the battery unbricked for weeks at least?

 

Congratulations!
As others have noted, there is reason to be concerned about the battery maintaining a charge during the shipping period.
Do you have an estimate as to how many weeks it will be in transit?

 

The quote that I've received so far says 6 weeks. That is a bit longer than I'd like of course... Fortunately it is fall weather and the temperatures should be decent environmentally (therefore minimal intervention from car) but still a cause for concern...

I don't know if "storage mode" is going to help at all either...

I'm going to hunt for the shortest commute time but that's what I've found thus far.

 

At an absolute minimum, I think you want to make sure the car starts its' journey with 100% charge, as it will 'leak' over time, and you don't want it to 'brick' en-route.
I have heard horror stories of cars coming in with dead battery after a long boat trip. Also, I think you want seller to show you pictures of full charge range / etc before they send it to you to confirm battery health before it gets sent out.

 

Just have car in tow mode and precious owner pull the ESS service disconnect.

 

So, it will stay in tow mode even after the ESS service disconnect is pulled? Should they also disconnect the 12V battery so it doesn't drain? (will it drain?)

The seller says the car charges to 185 in standard charge mode, which is pretty incredible considering its age, if that is true I'll be very excited, but if its mid 170's that is still pretty good so I'm hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. It is probably worth having him give it one last full charge before dropping it off at the port in South Hampton though, hopefully they have a HPWC down there for him to top it off.

Does everyone recommend putting into range mode for the final charge? I'm thinking better not to leave it at 100% for those first few days (before it self-discharges down), for the health of the Lithiums, they are better off never touching the 100% mark for very long. I'll ask the seller to charge to 100% range-mode and then drive to the port to burn off the first 15% or so (based on his location/distance from port), then put into tow mode and pull the ESS disconnect.

At some point he did have the car brought over to the UK so he should have followed some working procedure the first time, I'd imagine... I'll be discussing this with him tomorrow via Skype.

 

It should.

Thought this roadster was an 1.5?

 

This is Roadster #114, right? The 1.5 cars do not have a separate 12V battery. So that is one thing you won't have to worry about.

 

Ah, yes, good point, I was just thinking most things were similar to my (ex) 2.0...

 

You may want to clarify with the seller if that 185 ideal miles in std. mode was off of a 110/115V line. In the ebay ad I noticed it was connected to a 115v power source, if so your ideal miles may read higher. Same with his 250 mile range mode estimate. Did you have the chance to ask what the CAC was?

As for having the seller range mode, drive 15% and pull the ESS disconnect.... When you pull that disconnect its essentially a fuse, so in theory and all practicality, the battery should sit at the same SOC as when it was pulled. So the range mode would not be necessary. If you were shipping the Roadster without pulling the ESS disconnect, then I'd do what you suggested. I feel anywhere near a std. mode charge should be quite safe for transport or a span of 4-5 weeks where the HVAC is not running. But you can never predict what happens with the Roadster / transport, hence why I prefer pulling the disconnect. That way you know nothing can pull from the ESS.

As for putting it in storage mode, that'll do nothing for the Roadster unless you have an AC line connected to it. Storage mode wakes the Roadster once a day to check the SOC, ensures its within an SOC range, adds a charge if the SOC has crossed a specified floor, then shuts down once its happy at the minimum SOC it requires for storage mode.