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2024 Shipping Movements

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I thought I would start a new thread for 2024 on European bound ships carrying Teslas.
The first logical question is why on earth would anyone on a Tesla forum be interested in shipping?

The answer is because once you have ordered your revolutionary expensive new car you enter the Tesla blackout zone - a frustrating period of non-communication from Tesla when you have no idea of what is happening with your order. If you call them, they just say they 'are waiting for a match'. What does that mean? Tesla don't build Model 3/Ys to order - they build whatever they want and then match what has been ordered to what has been produced. This 'matching' usually happens around the time the car is loaded on to a ship. Aha! Shipping has suddenly become interesting!

All Model 3s for Europe are currently made in the Shanghai Gigafactory and are shipped to Zeebrugge in Belgium, Koper in Slovenia or Barcelona in Spain through the Suez Canal in a journey taking about 30 days At the time of writing the Suez Canal is being avoided by most carriers and are routing via the Cape of Good Hope adding about 10 days to the voyage from Shanghai. It also adds about $200-250 to the shipping cost of each vehicle. All Model 3s and Y's for the UK are currently shipped from Shanghai direct to Southampton. UPDATE From Jun 24 MY for the UK will be supplied from Berlin!
Normally Tesla fully charter ships to transport their cars but during 2022/3 they supplemented the charters by using available space on scheduled services too. In 2024 I think we may see a return to whole charters in an effort to keep costs down and keep control of itineraries.


If you are in Auz/NZ, shipments are from Shanghai.
If you are in Dubai, your Model 3 will be loaded on to a ship that heads to Jebel Ali. Currently there is about one shipment per quarter.
If you are in Israel, your Model 3 will be shipped to Ashdod from Shanghai and again currently there is one shipment per quarter. Model Y will come from Berlin but is harder to track. Currently there are no services to Israel.
If you are in Ireland your car is shipped to Dublin via Zeebrugge.

Model S/X are shipped from Baltimore to Zeebrugge.

I mentioned Q1 earlier- this is because Tesla work in quarters with Q1 running from Jan to Mar. The Tesla business model requires as many cars as possible produced in a quarter to be paid for (delivered) in that same quarter.
This means that in Q1 the last ship will leave for Europe no later than around 8 Feb in order to allow for a 36/37 day transit to Southampton/Zeebrugge and then a (hectic) delivery push in the last 10 days or so of March. (A couple of days later if shipping to Barcelona) It is logical then to expect to see a large number of export models for the UK/EU market to be clogging the Chinese production lines in January and early February. This explains the feast or famine nature of Tesla logistics. Elon has promised his staff that he will try to suppress the end of quarter wave. To an extent he has already succeeded in this - by moving all export production to China, the US domestic supply is now much more evenly spread throughout the quarter. Production in Berlin is currently interrupted by delays in components as a result of container ships avoiding Suez, however this should only be a short-term issue.

You may wonder why we in the UK should be interested in shipments to Zeebrugge, Koper and Barcelona? Often it may be difficult to determine whether a ship is heading to Southampton, Zeebrugge, Barcelona or Koper and so it's just as easy to track all the ships to Europe. Often the ship may call at Southampton and then head to Zeebrugge and so it makes sense keep track of everything heading to Europe anyway. It's useful for me if our European readers advise their expected delivery dates and when VINs are allocated as that can help identify where a ship is going.

There is an pretty good spreadsheet populated with the latest (and historical) confirmed shipping information from a variety of sources - Tesla Carriers. It may be more of interest to you later as you become more engrossed in this subject! Did I mention it can become addictive?

Anyway, I think we can expect to see about 13 boatloads to Europe in Q1.
That begs the next question - how big are the boats? The standard ocean going vehicle carrier is 200 metres long and 32 metres wide and can fit about 5000 - 5500 cars onboard. A Tesla is larger and significantly heavier than a standard car and so a maximum of about 4500 cars are in each shipment. There are larger vessels that can transport more and I will make a point of mentioning it if a larger vessel is being used.

Anyway the plan is to post details of the latest Tesla shipping news for 2024 to this thread.

I will keep and eye on Pier 80 San Francisco for Model S/X exports to Far East and Baltimore for S/X to Europe.

There are a number of ship trackers you can use to follow the ships and www.marinetraffic.com is one with perhaps the best free coverage but there are plenty of others. The ships transmit a signal which is picked up by shore based receivers (mostly hosted by amateurs) and forwarded to the website. The trouble is that the signal is a VHF signal meaning the receiver has to be within line-of-sight and once the ship goes over the horizon to the receiver that's it, unless you pay for satellite coverage which is not cheap. With the aid of satellite tracking I will provide a daily update on exactly where each 'Tesla' ship is and provide an estimated time of arrival to Zeebrugge and Southampton (the UK port of entry for Tesla). A talented reader of the thread @Frizzy, has created an excellent webpage where you can track 'Tesla' ships.
I'll also try and add some background info which you may find interesting.

Correctly identifying Tesla ships from Shanghai is not easy and quite often a 'suspect' ship turns out to be a false alarm. There are other sites that claim to track Tesla ships but actually just track every possible ship that departs Shanghai, which is not particularly helpful. I at least try and rule out the improbable ones based on my experience. It's also free! It helps enormously if when you 'chat' to Tesla about your order that you ask what ship your car is on or if they won't tell you the name, at least ask when it will arrive in Zeebrugge/Southampton. Please post your info to the thread or PM me!

You can help me and others by keeping any posts on this thread strictly to shipping related matters - questions about when to expect delivery, VINs and panel gaps have their own threads, which I have been known to visit and contribute to also.
 
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Hi all - I picked up my MYP in Quicksilver from Bluewater on the 23rd and I part exchanged my ModelY long Range at the same time. From me getting out my car to getting in my new car was around 8 mins. All I had to do was give my name, show my ID and handover my 2 keys and V5 after about 39 seconds keying in the computer he gave me my 2 new Key cards told me where the new car was and off I went. I did ask him if I could have my old card back to transfer some stuff from one car to the other and he said it was Ok to do that. I got straight in my new car pulled it out of the space it was in and placed it straight on supercharge while I transferred my stuff and did an inspection of the car. Once I transferred the stuff I took my old key card back to the office thanked him for his help then went back to my new car and after a 15 min charge and inspection I accepted delivery on the app and immediately my new car replaced my old car on the app. The car had zero issues with it inside and out and looked gleaming. Don’t worry about the part exchange system at all as they didn’t even look at mine the time I was there. I just told them where it was and they were happy enough with that. All they asked for was for me to show the mileage on my app as you are allowed 1000 miles over what you declared on your part exchange agreement. I polished it washed it hoovered it and they didn’t even glance at it. When I got home and completed my set up I noticed I didn’t even get charged for charging my car up either I went fron 30% to 80%. Hope this helps you get ready for when you all collect you new cars and enjoy the day. Here is a picture of my new car on the charger at Bluewater.
 

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Hi all - I picked up my MYP in Quicksilver from Bluewater on the 23rd and I part exchanged my ModelY long Range at the same time. From me getting out my car to getting in my new car was around 8 mins. All I had to do was give my name, show my ID and handover my 2 keys and V5 after about 39 seconds keying in the computer he gave me my 2 new Key cards told me where the new car was and off I went. I did ask him if I could have my old card back to transfer some stuff from one car to the other and he said it was Ok to do that. I got straight in my new car pulled it out of the space it was in and placed it straight on supercharge while I transferred my stuff and did an inspection of the car. Once I transferred the stuff I took my old key card back to the office thanked him for his help then went back to my new car and after a 15 min charge and inspection I accepted delivery on the app and immediately my new car replaced my old car on the app. The car had zero issues with it inside and out and looked gleaming. Don’t worry about the part exchange system at all as they didn’t even look at mine the time I was there. I just told them where it was and they were happy enough with that. All they asked for was for me to show the mileage on my app as you are allowed 1000 miles over what you declared on your part exchange agreement. I polished it washed it hoovered it and they didn’t even glance at it. When I got home and completed my set up I noticed I didn’t even get charged for charging my car up either I went fron 30% to 80%. Hope this helps you get ready for when you all collect you new cars and enjoy the day. Here is a picture of my new car on the charger at Bluewater.
Great colour.
Did you get any other trade-in offers before you settled with Tesla and if so how did they compare?
 
Great colour.
Did you get any other trade-in offers before you settled with Tesla and if so how did they compare?
I tried motorway but they wanted to give it away and we buy any car and I couldn’t be bothered advertising privately as they just want to take your pants down as well, to be fair to Tesla they were the strongest offer and you get to keep your car till trade in day.
 
I tried motorway but they wanted to give it away and we buy any car and I couldn’t be bothered advertising privately as they just want to take your pants down as well, to be fair to Tesla they were the strongest offer and you get to keep your car till trade in day.
Thanks. I’m still in two minds. My offer from Tesla expires on the 29th May, which was a wee bit less than motorway at the time. I can wait to see what Tesla’s renewed offer is, as I’ve paid it in full, I can decide from there
 
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My TA in Dublin is expecting my Model 3 (SR RWD Pearl White) to arrive in Dublin port on Tues 28th May, which I believe will come from Zebrugge. For those of you tracking the ships, what is the most likely scenario for this? Asian Empire unloads in Zebrugge and then Thames Highway brings it from Zebrugge to Dublin? Or is it likely the car is already in Zebrugge and Thames Highway collects it in the next day or two for delivery on Tuesday?
 
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I believe it was a guesstimate. Anyway it seems to be a bit of a mute point now. I have the same collection day as you and I'm almost 500 miles north, so I'm glad I reverted back to Glasgow as I'm saving myself a flight and a 500 mile journey north :rolleyes: .

Marco Silva just posted his collection date in Kent is 14th June. So we now have larger spread of collection points over the UK all within a couple of days of each other.

12th Southampton
12th Glasgow
13th Manchester
14th Kent

There doesn't seem to be any rhyme nor reason.
Of course these dates all might change with 2 day slippage of the Morning Post
I’ve asked them if I could collect early but they said this was the earliest - I even asked to collect from Southampton which they also said it wasn’t possible.
 
I’ve asked them if I could collect early but they said this was the earliest - I even asked to collect from Southampton which they also said it wasn’t possible.
My TA was going to change my collection to Southampton, after I asked, as I was initially told I could collect 2 weeks early. They were obviously wrong
My current Glasgow collection date has slipped 2 days to 14h June.
 
Any ship en route right now ? That is the big question.
My gut feeling says that MS+MX arrive in 1.5 months interval. Meaning next is bound to arrive just about next week. In turn indicating it is very probable that either this shipment left baltimore just before the bridge tragedy OR there will be a noticable delay if it was meant to load right now.
Everything based on my speculations without very much knowledge
Maybe the baltimore bridge is affecting things as late as now. Last batch of MS/X arrived europe in the end of march as i remember it. Meaning there should have been a batch a week ago. Or am I wrong in my predictions?
 
Maybe the baltimore bridge is affecting things as late as now. Last batch of MS/X arrived europe in the end of march as i remember it. Meaning there should have been a batch a week ago. Or am I wrong in my predictions?
They no longer list Model S and X inventory on the UK website and just suggests you contact them instead. Unknown if that’s a shortage or their LHD experiment in a RHD country didn’t go that well so they are giving up on it.
 
I live in Spain so luckily not affected (feel sorry for you guys though)
Anyway I believe possibly we might see some delays in what I believe are regular interval of 1.5 months deliveries of MS/X to Europe. But I might have misinterpreted it all and it might not be so that it is 1.5 months intervals
 
My TA in Dublin is expecting my Model 3 (SR RWD Pearl White) to arrive in Dublin port on Tues 28th May, which I believe will come from Zebrugge. For those of you tracking the ships, what is the most likely scenario for this? Asian Empire unloads in Zebrugge and then Thames Highway brings it from Zebrugge to Dublin? Or is it likely the car is already in Zebrugge and Thames Highway collects it in the next day or two for delivery on Tuesday?
@Mr Miserable any ideas?
 
Hi folks been lurking over the past week keeping an eye on everyone’s updates. I have order a M3 long range in stealth grey white white seats. Ordered last wed just wondering if anyone thinks I have any chance whatsoever of getting one from the morning star shipment. Will be picking up form Glasgow Tesla centre I see someone had a date of the 14th there.
 
Hi folks been lurking over the past week keeping an eye on everyone’s updates. I have order a M3 long range in stealth grey white white seats. Ordered last wed just wondering if anyone thinks I have any chance whatsoever of getting one from the morning star shipment. Will be picking up form Glasgow Tesla centre I see someone had a date of the 14th there.
Yeah. I have a collection date on the 14th in Glasgow.
If you collection date is 14th June, your car will most certainly be on the Morning Post (not the Star), which is due in Southampton on 30th May
 
Sorry yea meant morning post. I have no collection date yet hoping i suddenly get one this week or I presume I will have a lengthy wait for next shipment
I'm collecting the M3P, which was released after the Morning Post had set sail so none of the M3P's on board could have been assigned to anyone at that point.
As Mr Miserable stated, Tesla don't build to order, so there may well be some unassigned M3LR's on the vessel, though I would have thought the white interior would be less common than the black.
So if I was you I would pester your Glasgow TA to try to identify a date and ask if there is availability for your spec on the Morning Post.
Who's your TA?
 
My TA in Dublin is expecting my Model 3 (SR RWD Pearl White) to arrive in Dublin port on Tues 28th May, which I believe will come from Zebrugge. For those of you tracking the ships, what is the most likely scenario for this? Asian Empire unloads in Zebrugge and then Thames Highway brings it from Zebrugge to Dublin? Or is it likely the car is already in Zebrugge and Thames Highway collects it in the next day or two for delivery on Tuesday?
I can't see it arriving in Dublin tomorrow, and I wonder if he meant to say arriving in Zeebrugge tomorrow....
 
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