EU Market Situation and Outlook

[32no]

It looks to me like Tesla is aggressively expanding in Europe at the moment. Is it because of a high increase in demand from the Model SD?

So what has Tesla done to show aggressive expansion in Europe?
1. Nearly tripled their assembly plant size by moving to a new plant in Tilburg, Netherlands.
2. 10 superchargers added in 7 days
3. 10 superchargers in construction and fast supercharger expansion for the winter
4. Europe has 20 stores coming soon out of the 27 coming soon in the world. Europe also has 13 service centers coming soon out of the 37 coming soon in the world (19 of which are in North America).

 

[jhm]

It looks to me like Tesla is aggressively expanding in Europe at the moment. Is it because of a high increase in demand from the Model SD?

So what has Tesla done to show aggressive expansion in Europe?
1. Nearly tripled their assembly plant size by moving to a new plant in Tilburg, Netherlands.
2. 10 superchargers added in 7 days
3. 10 superchargers in construction and fast supercharger expansion for the winter
4. Europe has 20 stores coming soon out of the 26 coming soon in the world. Europe also has 13 service centers coming soon out of the 37 coming soon in the world (19 of which are in North America).

Nice summary. Good to keep tabs on this. It definitely looks like Tesla is wanting this market to flourish.

I wonder if the European market would benefit from a steady flow of Tesla deliveries throughout the quarter. We're all aware that Tesla tries to time the quarterly deliveries, but it is good for consumers on any continent. I'd be interested in other's thoughts about how the customer experience might improve with steady deliveries.

 

[vgrinshpun]

It looks to me like Tesla is aggressively expanding in Europe at the moment. Is it because of a high increase in demand from the Model SD?

So what has Tesla done to show aggressive expansion in Europe?
1. Nearly tripled their assembly plant size by moving to a new plant in Tilburg, Netherlands.
2. 10 superchargers added in 7 days
3. 10 superchargers in construction and fast supercharger expansion for the winter
4. Europe has 20 stores coming soon out of the 27 coming soon in the world. Europe also has 13 service centers coming soon out of the 37 coming soon in the world (19 of which are in North America).

I am wondering whether accelerated roll-out of SC in Europe has something to do with the ongoing negotiations on charging cooperation with BMW. This is pure speculation on my part, but existence of dense European SC network seem to strenghten negotiating position for the party that owns them...

 

[Adm]

I'd like to make a list with all known websites with Model S registrations in Europe. I've found some here so far, but maybe you can all add the ones missing.


Austria
Belgium (only current month?)
Finland
Germany
Netherlands
Sweden
Switzerland

 

[schonelucht]

Finland is first past the post with 2 registered cars reported for November 2014...

 

[LST]

For Switzerland:

auto-schweiz: Autoverkäufe nach Modellen

 

[Gerardf]

Sweden is reported as 20


Nyregistreringar november 2014

http://www.bilsweden.se/storage/cms/7b8ed482fa3a4ecb909057da05cb304c/212a36ff8cca401c821bdf7837c1643f/xlsx/1/milj%c3%b6bilstoppennov14.xlsx?MediaArchive_ForceDownload=true&PropertyName=Files&ValueIndex=3

For the year total there I see Tesla Model S mentioned as 201 at position 43.. and futher in the list at 125 another Tesla S mention for as one more

 

[schonelucht]

the Netherlands reports 136 model S's during last month.

 

[Yggdrasill]

Norway has 202 Model S registered in November. That's the highest number since June, which for a mid-quarter month is pretty good. Bodes well for December.

 

[Gerardf]

Some interesting developments in Germany :


Merkel Backs Incentives in 1 Million Electric Cars Push - Bloomberg

Maybe the translation, however Fast DC chargers are getting referred to as Super Chargers
“We need a super-charger infrastructure where you can charge 80 percent of the battery in 15 minutes,” said Stefan Bratzel, director of the Center of Automotive Management at the University of Applied Sciences in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany.


And E.on (largest energy supplier in Germany) will sell-off the fossil fuel activities to be able to focus on renewables

German energy giant E.ON to focus on renewables | News | DW.DE | 01.12.2014

 

[schonelucht]

At least in the Netherlands it seems insurers are having a hangover from Tesla claims and increasing premiums by a lot. Centraal Beheer's tailor made 'Tesla-insurance' (premium 750EUR/year) is cancelled and current policy holders notified of new prices in a range betweeen 2000 and 4000EUR/year depending on claim history of the main driver. Another large insurer (Delta Loyd) which generally offered premiums around 900 EUR has followed suit and announced premiums from 1st of January 2015 will increase to at least 1250EUR. The terms of these new contracts are also less favorable than the old ones. To make matters worse it's possible these numbers are before insurance tax (21%).

It seems insurers were banking on the fact that only older customers could afford the car and that it was theft proof. However, with a year of experience from a sizable body of insured cars, the cost to insure a Model S is higher than anticipated. A lot of small damage was claimed to wheels, bumpers, etc and with relatively few certified shops, the price for individuals repair is higher than for a comparable car. To continue to keep the TCO competitive in the Dutch market (consumers are extremely sensitive to this argument here, even at the top end of the market), Tesla will have to keep a very close eye on 3rd party repair costs.

It would be interesting to know how expensive it is to insure a Tesla around Europe to get a good feel if the Dutch market is unique or merely more mature than in other markets and therefore encounters this issue first.

 

[Yggdrasill]

An competitively priced insurance here will generally run between NOK6000/$860/€700 and NOK12000/$1720/€1400 per year. The lower figure is for people who haven't had an accident in 10-15 years, live in the right area (no street parking or the like), are really good at bargain hunting, etc. The higher figure is for people with an okay insurance history, but who might not live in the right area, might be younger, and hasn't chosen the absolute cheapest company, etc. Personally I'd end up somewhere close to the middle of this range.

2000-4000 Euros for insurance sounds to me like they really don't want to insure Teslas. We have some companies like that who will give really crappy prices on cars they don't know much about and don't want to know much about.

 

[schonelucht]

Yes, this particular company does not want to insure Teslas anymore. The issue here is that it is not an insurer that doesn't know about the car, but an insurer that does know about the car (from first hand experience). An insurer that decided enough is enough and outright cancelled all existing policies because the repair costs were to damn high.

 

[Robert.Boston]

Yes, this particular company does not want to insure Teslas anymore. The issue here is that it is not an insurer that doesn't know about the car, but an insurer that does know about the car (from first hand experience). An insurer that decided enough is enough and outright cancelled all existing policies because the repair costs were to damn high.

I don't think this decision by one insurer should be taken too seriously. U.S. insurers have had more history with the Model S and continue to offer competitive premiums. (U.S. threads, e.g.: Model S Insurance Anyone tried to get an insurance quote for Model S?).

My guess is that Centraal Beheer had some early, bad experience with Model Ss and a senior actuary decided it wasn't worth the risk. There are plenty of choices in the retail insurance market, so I doubt this will have a serious implication for Model S ownership.

 

[Yggdrasill]

Yes, this particular company does not want to insure Teslas anymore. The issue here is that it is not an insurer that doesn't know about the car, but an insurer that does know about the car (from first hand experience). An insurer that decided enough is enough and outright cancelled all existing policies because the repair costs were to damn high.

Insurance companies here also have lots of experience with Teslas, and you don't see anywhere near €4000/year.

It is true that in the beginning, some insurance companies did underestimate the cost of insuring Teslas, but this has mostly been corrected for by now. Some Tesla owners have experienced a 1000-2000 NOK price increase when renewing the insurance for another year. Here's an article from May: Google Translate

 

[Gerardf]

Austria : Nov = 9.

http://www.statistik.at/web_de/static/pkw_und_lkw_kl._n1_neuzulassungen_1._bis_30._november_2014_nach_marken_roh_035718.pdf

 

[mostapasta]

Updated November numbers:

 

[Ingenieur]

57 cars in Germany acc. to KBA

 

[Gerardf]

France 22 (for a 2014 total up to now of 242)

Chiffres des ventes immatriculations de voitures électriques en France

 

[mostapasta]

Per a request, here is what I have for 2014 YTD (I'm missing just a few for November).