An African Boy's Crazy Plan

[franditt]

So,

I live between Ghana, Africa (most often) and Amsterdam, The Netherlands (part of the year). I LOVE Tesla and so I came up with this crazy plan to get one in Ghana. To the best of my knowledge, there are only two in the country and I have no idea how they are charged.

So my plan involves;
1) Save money to buy a Tesla; through someone in USA or Canada
2) Save money to buy a Power Wall; through someone in USA or Canada
3) Have them shipped to Ghana
4) Build a solar installation at home to power my Power Wall

TO note;
-Will take a couple of years to achieve this
-Ghana has very high solar photovoltaic power potential
-I am unsure of the legalities around owning a Tesla in an unsupported country
-The Ghanaian import laws doesn't have EVs on it's list...LOL
-There are hardly any EVs in Ghana and no superchargers
-Farthest distance I intend to ever go will be about 162 Km (101 Miles)

Any good advice is welcome; and will keep updating this thread on my progress

 

[Cal1]

I think your biggest challenge will be eventual service issues. Our service requirements with two MS's over the last 7 years have been minimal but not everything can be done OTA. You'll want to find our just how a US spec'd car charger will work in your country.

My daughter has a South African mother in law. A few years ago she gave me a huge hard backed book called "The Africa Book" by lonely planet. Since the pandemic I've been reading it a lot. So much I didn't know or were wrong about. Very fascinating!

Her family are long time famer/land owners and would love for us to visit. Just can't stomach the long plane ride and cost to get there from the west coast! Even if everything is free when we get there.

 

[jjrandorin]

Tesla powerwalls check in with tesla constantly, so Its likely not going to work to ship a powerwall somewhere there is no tesla certified installer. You are likely going to need to give up on the powerwall.

There will be no support (obviously) and most online services likely wont work (navigation, etc etc).

So, if you are someone who has enough skill to service everything yourself, and understand that you will be completely on your own for everything, you can think about the tesla vehicle. You will want to think about some other battery solution though.

 

[pilotSteve]

Tesla powerwalls check in with tesla constantly, so Its likely not going to work to ship a powerwall somewhere there is no tesla certified installer. You are likely going to need to give up on the powerwall.

There will be no support (obviously) and most online services likely wont work (navigation, etc etc).

So, if you are someone who has enough skill to service everything yourself, and understand that you will be completely on your own for everything, you can think about the tesla vehicle. You will want to think about some other battery solution though.

Maybe look at LGChem RESU batteries (non-Tesla but perhaps more available). They integrate with SolarEege inverters nicely.

Product Info｜LG Home Battery

 

[alexgr]

So my plan involves;
1) Save money to buy a Tesla; through someone in USA or Canada
2) Save money to buy a Power Wall; through someone in USA or Canada

-Will take a couple of years to achieve this

In a couple of years you should be able to source your Tesla in Europe if you are looking for 3 or Y. Might be easier if you live part in Europe part in Ghana.

 

[redalf]

There are other threads that discuss this, but isn’t taking a Tesla to another country kind of a pain? Charging infrastructure aside, so much of the Tesla operates as a connected vehicle, that a lot of that functionality gets lost when you switch countries as the networks aren’t compatible (software updates, navigation, the audio apps, even just am/fm all end up being tied one or another to the country of origin, and may not work when you transport it overseas).

 

[franditt]

I think your biggest challenge will be eventual service issues. Our service requirements with two MS's over the last 7 years have been minimal but not everything can be done OTA. You'll want to find our just how a US spec'd car charger will work in your country.

I think so too. I'm currently trying to contact the one Telsa owner I know of in Ghana (they are kind of a Celebrity family, so reaching them might not be easy). I was only given some links on this forum to some Moroccans who have been buying Teslas and have built their own super-chargers in Morocco. Hopefully, I can find out how they deal with servicing.

My daughter has a South African mother in law. A few years ago she gave me a huge hard backed book called "The Africa Book" by lonely planet. Since the pandemic I've been reading it a lot. So much I didn't know or were wrong about. Very fascinating!

Her family are long time famer/land owners and would love for us to visit. Just can't stomach the long plane ride and cost to get there from the west coast! Even if everything is free when we get there.

The journey can be long, I know; perhaps you could stop over in Ghana lol
Hope you make it one day; Africa is a very nice continent to visit, especially South Africa, all things considered

 

[franditt]

Tesla powerwalls check in with tesla constantly, so Its likely not going to work to ship a powerwall somewhere there is no tesla certified installer. You are likely going to need to give up on the powerwall.

There will be no support (obviously) and most online services likely wont work (navigation, etc etc).

So, if you are someone who has enough skill to service everything yourself, and understand that you will be completely on your own for everything, you can think about the tesla vehicle. You will want to think about some other battery solution though.

Thanks for the info. I guess I'll look into other charging options then. I know a lot of services won't work, but hoping it'll be a good test case for EVs in Ghana and hopefully draw the public and Tesla's attention. The non-dependency on gas alone is worth it for me.

 

[franditt]

Maybe look at LGChem RESU batteries (non-Tesla but perhaps more available). They integrate with SolarEege inverters nicely.

Product Info｜LG Home Battery

Awesome. Thanks for the link

 

[franditt]

In a couple of years you should be able to source your Tesla in Europe if you are looking for 3 or Y. Might be easier if you live part in Europe part in Ghana.

Yeah, was looking at a 3. I'm partially in Amsterdam, so buying it will probably be the least of the problems in this crazy plan....lol

 

[franditt]

There are other threads that discuss this, but isn’t taking a Tesla to another country kind of a pain? Charging infrastructure aside, so much of the Tesla operates as a connected vehicle, that a lot of that functionality gets lost when you switch countries as the networks aren’t compatible (software updates, navigation, the audio apps, even just am/fm all end up being tied one or another to the country of origin, and may not work when you transport it overseas).

LOL....hence the "crazy". I know a lot of functionality will be lost, but the non-dependency on gas alone is worth it for me. I'm however researching the few users in non-supported countries (some Moroccans and at least one Ghanaian); should give me some insight into how they handle these issues. I'm also a tech buff and a computer programmer, so might look into "hacking" to make some stuff work; software updates for example can be done from wifi with a VPN to mask location