I have been watching Tesla for sometime and would love to have a Model S here in Dubai. I see some have arrived but there is no official local support for them yet. I realize the maintenance problems of having a Tesla in a unsupported area but am happy to take the chance that Tesla will soon be officially out here and that in the meantime I may have to fork out for a ranger to fly in or worst case export the car to a service center.
With all that said, I really to be sure that the car, with ALL its amazing features, will actually work out here. Below are some issues that on my mind - these are really all I need to resolve prior to purchasing and importing..
EUROPE vs USA Spec
What is better – Europe or USA spec. As far as I can see, the USA wall chargers operates off a 240V power supply and/or 110V wall outlet. In the USA, 240V is achieved by pulling from 2 legs of a three phase power supply. In Europe and UAE is 240V is standard single phase anyway – so I don’t see any compatibility issues for charging..
If Europe is Norway best?
I heard that it is easiest to but Tesla from Norway as they done have a sales tax which might otherwise be expensive or at least difficult to try to get refunded after export.
SIM
I understand that Tesla gets its updates via Cellular data and/or wifi. I understand that the car has its own built in SIM card for cellular data and does not rely on Bluetooth connectivity to the drivers cell phone. Presumably, cellular data is pretty important if you want traffic updates or want the car to be able to look up the address of a restaurant etc..
Should I get the inbuilt SIM replaced with a SIM card that I could provide from the local cellular provider here in Dubai? If so – what size SIM do they need? How should I go about getting the SIM changed?
Autopilot
Will features like Auto-pilot work outside of Tesla service areas? Obviously, its ability would be limited by the map data available. Most of the major routes are well mapped on Garmin and Google maps in Dubai. My route to work is very well mapped and I would hope that I could use the Autopilot feature to make the heavy traffic less tiring…
Navigation
I imagine that if I bought a Tesla in USA or Norway – it would be preprogrammed with Europe or USA maps. How will I be able to get the UAE Dubai maps loaded? Garmin, Tom Tom and Google Maps all have pretty good mapping for Dubai – so I assume that Tesla can somehow access this data…
With all that said, I really to be sure that the car, with ALL its amazing features, will actually work out here. Below are some issues that on my mind - these are really all I need to resolve prior to purchasing and importing..
EUROPE vs USA Spec
What is better – Europe or USA spec. As far as I can see, the USA wall chargers operates off a 240V power supply and/or 110V wall outlet. In the USA, 240V is achieved by pulling from 2 legs of a three phase power supply. In Europe and UAE is 240V is standard single phase anyway – so I don’t see any compatibility issues for charging..
If Europe is Norway best?
I heard that it is easiest to but Tesla from Norway as they done have a sales tax which might otherwise be expensive or at least difficult to try to get refunded after export.
SIM
I understand that Tesla gets its updates via Cellular data and/or wifi. I understand that the car has its own built in SIM card for cellular data and does not rely on Bluetooth connectivity to the drivers cell phone. Presumably, cellular data is pretty important if you want traffic updates or want the car to be able to look up the address of a restaurant etc..
Should I get the inbuilt SIM replaced with a SIM card that I could provide from the local cellular provider here in Dubai? If so – what size SIM do they need? How should I go about getting the SIM changed?
Autopilot
Will features like Auto-pilot work outside of Tesla service areas? Obviously, its ability would be limited by the map data available. Most of the major routes are well mapped on Garmin and Google maps in Dubai. My route to work is very well mapped and I would hope that I could use the Autopilot feature to make the heavy traffic less tiring…
Navigation
I imagine that if I bought a Tesla in USA or Norway – it would be preprogrammed with Europe or USA maps. How will I be able to get the UAE Dubai maps loaded? Garmin, Tom Tom and Google Maps all have pretty good mapping for Dubai – so I assume that Tesla can somehow access this data…
