Japan

[hiroshiy]

I believe HK has much more orders than Japan. As I mentioned Tesla is something unknown here. The marketing at Tesla Japan doesn't seem to spread the words without spending a lot of money.

For now HK market is much bigger but we have larger population and high awareness for electric cars in general.

 

[DITB]

I believe HK has much more orders than Japan. As I mentioned Tesla is something unknown here. The marketing at Tesla Japan doesn't seem to spread the words without spending a lot of money.

For now HK market is much bigger but we have larger population and high awareness for electric cars in general.

Is there a sense of Japanese pride and nationalism involved also? Japan has so many famous car brands, even some that make EVs and hybrids, could that be a factor?

For Tesla, I am sure they are not too concerned at the moment, so far they can sell all the cars they can make - and various markets are screaming for Tesla Model S, from all over the world - and the Model X or Gen III hasn't even been released yet!

Having said that I would imagine the Japanese market would wake up on a word of mouth basis. When the car starts to appear on the streets of Japan, and friends, families, colleagues will see it, the word will start spreading.

 

[hiroshiy]

I don't think that we have nationalism in purchasing new cars. Japanese prefer better products.

http://www.jaia-jp.org/wp-content/uploads/PriceRange_year.pdf
Imported cars data. Last year Japan imported 12K cars with price over 10K. Good opportunity for Tesla.

Yes I think Tesla will be better known to public once we start driving. But will take a longer time if Tesla doesn't do a good job in Internet media. They have no FB page, one Twitter account that has 800 followers, and tweet once in every two months. No blog updates.

 

[DITB]

I don't think that we have nationalism in purchasing new cars. Japanese prefer better products.

http://www.jaia-jp.org/wp-content/uploads/PriceRange_year.pdf
Imported cars data. Last year Japan imported 12K cars with price over 10K. Good opportunity for Tesla.

Yes I think Tesla will be better known to public once we start driving. But will take a longer time if Tesla doesn't do a good job in Internet media. They have no FB page, one Twitter account that has 800 followers, and tweet once in every two months. No blog updates.

I guess they are too busy making cars!

But again, as long as they are selling all they can produce, and then some, with backlogs of almost half a year overseas from the USA, they don't really need to promote it so much. That will just make them even more angry and impatient customers.

Rumour is not that Elon isn't coming to HK for first delivery - not sure if it is true - but how about Japan?

 

[hiroshiy]

Yeah strong global demand is a good thing. Eventually in a few years Japanese will catch up and see FCVs and hybrids are not the future

Re Elon no info right now. I haven't been contacted by a delivery specialist yet so not sure even the cars are coming here in August. No replies from Tesla as we'll

 

[DITB]

Yeah strong global demand is a good thing. Eventually in a few years Japanese will catch up and see FCVs and hybrids are not the future

Re Elon no info right now. I haven't been contacted by a delivery specialist yet so not sure even the cars are coming here in August. No replies from Tesla as we'll

It seems that Jerome Guillen will be coming instead, according to rumours on the HK forums

Jerome Guillen - VP world wide sales and service

 

[hiroshiy]

I heard the rumor but he seems to be here this or next week, not for the delivery. Will post more info when I get.

I haven't been contacted by DS yet and no info about delivery dates, so I guess HK in July and Japan in August. Some more patience for us!

Good news is that when the car comes with CHAdeMO adapter we can virtually go anywhere in Japan with 50kW quick chargers.

I still keep my 4.2 liter ICE for commuting. Wondering when I should sell...

 

[CCT]

http://www.jaia-jp.org/wp-content/uploads/PriceRange_year.pdf
Imported cars data. Last year Japan imported 12K cars with price over 10K. Good opportunity for Tesla.

Hiro-san, I think you meant 12k cars imported to Japan last year with price over $100k, right? （1001~2000万円: 11,051台 + 2,001万円以上: 1,135台）

I believe Tesla will do well in general, but I also believe that it's only a matter of time Toyota, Honda and Nissan will come out with a compelling and much more performance-oriented full electric car, especially considering Tesla is sharing its patents to others. Japan has a really strong industrial base and the auto companies invest in R&D heavily as well. Up to now there hasn't been one marketed by them might due to business reason i.e. cost vs profit, more than a technological reason, I suspect.

Further, to ensure EV a success they must make sure there's already a good charging infrastructure in place. And now as we can see, the CHAdeMO standard is maturing and stations/charging points are covering a much wider areas now in Japan as Hiro-san mentioned above. So another reason is a strategic one. Companies like Toyota and Honda are giants and they produce a colossal amount of cars every year so if they all produce amazing full electric cars at once, and market them to the public, you can simply imagine a huge amount of people will switch to EV and if the charging infrastructure isn't ready for that kind of capacity, it'd be a disaster. On the other hand, if they make one good EV, and produce a few thousands a year, it's just a dis-economies of scale and certainly not a convincing business case.

Most Japanese friends I know are quite environmentally conscious, and anyone who has visited Japan could feel it. They like clean, simple, easy-to-use and efficient technologies, be them vending machines, toilet seats, or the super efficient, always-on-time JR and Tokyo metro systems.

I won't be surprised to see a compelling Lexus EV in a few years.

 

[hiroshiy]

Hi, @CCT,
Yes I meant $100K.

Re other Japanese manufacturers, I'm a little bit worried about them. There must be a reason why they are not investing a lot in plug-ins. Toyota execs even say EVs are for short distance vehicles.

I personally guess that it might be employment problem going into EV era. As computers eliminated number of jobs in the past decades, EVs might do as well. For example, car manufacturers would need less engine R&D. No transmission development company anymore. All dealers would not survive without oil changes, filter changes or belt changes. Many of the eco system they built might not be necessary anymore, be it fuel tanks, fuel pumps, fuel lines, generators, belt-powered A/CS etc. Since employment is a large political issue, the government could be involved.

Germany seems to decide to move towards EV a little bit. If Japanese further delay EV movement for above reasons more hard-landing to EV era would happen, even though the government opted slower, gradual change.

 

[hiroshiy]

At Japan delivery, which seems like in August, we will not have UMC available. However it seems that J1772 adapter will be available "for purchase". That is at least a good news because J1772 will open possibilities of destination charging. We can also buy Prius/Leaf/iMiev's EVSE to charge from regular outlets.

 

[hiroshiy]

My status changed back to "in transit from the factory", this time in Japanese.

 

[hiroshiy]

Somebody from Tesla called me today (I didn't take the phone as I was in a meeting). So will see whether it's a good news or not tomorrow.

 

[hiroshiy]

So bad news. At least the delivery is delayed to September. HPWC and CHAdeMO adapter are bundled with all cars. UMC is not available at the time of delivery and it's separate purchase. J1772 can be purchased with the car.

Probably localized Garmin navigation with tech package but may become due bill. TuneIn Radio will be available but not Slacker.

 

[Benz]

Japan Launch Event to take place in September 2014?

 

[hiroshiy]

Nothing concrete I heard of, but Tesla mentioned there may be an event. I've also seen a rumor that one of the Superchargers is going to be located at Totsuka (seems to be at the new service center location), which doesn't make sense to me. Too close to Tokyo, not on a major highway route, major traffic jam point, major detour from north and from west, can't reach from either Osaka or Kyoto with 85.

September delivery itself seems possible. Not sure how many.

 

[TesAus]

Nothing concrete I heard of, but Tesla mentioned there may be an event. I've also seen a rumor that one of the Superchargers is going to be located at Totsuka (seems to be at the new service center location), which doesn't make sense to me. Too close to Tokyo, not on a major highway route, major traffic jam point, major detour from north and from west, can't reach from either Osaka or Kyoto with 85.

September delivery itself seems possible. Not sure how many.

Rumours are that deliveries should start in Australia in September so maybe launch events will be aligned to allow whichever Tesla executive attends to fly from one to the other. Given that east coast of Australia is on pretty much the same time zone would allow events a day apart?

 

[hiroshiy]

From what I saw from HK launch event, it was pretty big with a few hundred? people attending. It's pretty big if you do that scale in Tokyo.

I've seen some American people think that Asia Pacific is closely located each other, which actually not. Sydney to Tokyo is over 12 hours, and if they do it, they should spend some time for TV interviews for more free press. I think they would better spend 2 days at each location.
"Only social media" doesn't work here...

 

[DITB]

From what I saw from HK launch event, it was pretty big with a few hundred? people attending. It's pretty big if you do that scale in Tokyo.

I've seen some American people think that Asia Pacific is closely located each other, which actually not. Sydney to Tokyo is over 12 hours, and if they do it, they should spend some time for TV interviews for more free press. I think they would better spend 2 days at each location.
"Only social media" doesn't work here...

It was around 600 guests in HK, plus numerous TM staff and employed helpers for the day.

It wasn't about the flying time, but rather the time zones. There wouldn't be jet lag involved if launching Japan and Australia at the same time, apart from the difference between North America and Japan/Australia. After a few days in either place - and locally adjusted hopefully, going to the other place won't mean more jet lag.

 

[Benz]

Rumours are that deliveries should start in Australia in September so maybe launch events will be aligned to allow whichever Tesla executive attends to fly from one to the other. Given that east coast of Australia is on pretty much the same time zone would allow events a day apart?

There better be at least two weeks inbetween both Launch Events.

 

[TesAus]

There better be at least two weeks inbetween both Launch Events.

Ok, I've got to ask - why?