I've had 2 EVs on order this year, a Kia e-Niro and a Model 3.
The Kia I ordered on January 23rd and was given an estimated delivery date of April 30th. One week later the stories of year long delays came out and I was reassured that it would be Q2 for sure. I was told I was 4th on the list at that dealer but they were shuffling orders around their group to get cars faster.
At Easter there were rumours going around that they had too many orders for Gravity Blue and if you changed your colour they would get you a car right away (when I saw Gravity Blue in real life I didn't even like it any more, so for me it was doubly good news). I told my dealer but they never did anything. I found out a couple of weeks later that the rumours were true, as others started confirming they queue jumped on the Facebook groups.
Q2 came and went. In July I was forwarded an internal email from Kia UK by my dealer (not sure if an accident) saying that my order was to be delivered in "2019 (TBC)". Others were slipping to January 2020.
At that point I decided to pull the trigger on my 2016 day 1 Model 3 reservation. I ordered on July 8th and received an SMS on July 23rd that the estimated delivery window was 12 - 25 August. On August 1st I received an SMS to say the window was now 7 - 20 of August, which was a problem as my holiday was booked for 7 - 21 August. I also saw I had a VIN number from the HTML hack method.
On August 4th I was called to say that I could take delivery of someone else's car on the 7th. I told them I had to decline as I was going on holiday that morning and could they do late on the 6th? I was told no. In which case, I told them, I could pick up my car on or after the 22nd.
On August 5th I received an email telling me my delivery window was now 18 - 25 of August, which obviously made me happy as any date in that range fell within the 7 day grace period to pick up your car as per their FAQ.
On August 8th, while in Portugal, I received an SMS telling me my pick up appointment was 14:00 on August 9th. I also received a phone call telling me the same later that afternoon. I had to refer the caller to my case notes where it did say I could not pick up before the 22nd now.
On August 14th and 15th I transferred the full balance of the remainder to pay for the car in two parts by BACS, as per their invoice demand to pay in full 7 days before pick up. On August 16th I emailed to get a confirmation that this was received but never got a reply. I also tried to call but the delivery line rang and rang until 17:30 when it dropped the call due to the office being closed. I tried to call West Drayton but that also rang and rang, so I called Bristol to ask if they could give any information. I was told someone would call back later that evening or on Saturday morning. I never heard anything.
By August 20th (invoice delivery date) I heard nothing. On August 21st I tried to call the delivery line but again couldn't get through. I called Bristol again, spoke to the same woman (who clearly didn't remember the call from the previous Friday) and just got fobbed off with the same info. My VIN number had also been removed from the website HTML.
On August 22nd I was back home and called the delivery line, getting through after about 40 minutes. I was told that the car had gone to someone else (
I am pretty sure this was Chris Harris of Top Gear, by the way, as he suddenly got the same spec as me on August 9th). I told them I would be flexible on colour or pick up and was told someone would come back to me in 1 or 2 days when they went through the remaining inventory for that delivery. I never heard anything.
On 29th of August I called again. By now another VIN had appeared on my account page. This time I was told that it would be delivered first week of October but it might be worth calling again in the next week to see if a spare was available. However, new orders on the Tesla website were being given an estimated delivery date of September, so effectively I was at the back of the queue.
I wrote an email complaining about this treatment and in the reply got, "
The first car that became available for you was available between 07/08 and 20/08 only. Unfortunately, due to the high volume of vehicles we are receiving, there was no opportunity for us to hold the car until 22/08* and therefore you were unassigned from this vehicle. We understand this was poorly communicated with multiple communications repeating the availability of a vehicle from August 7th and no acknowledgement that you were unable to collect until a date later than 20/08. You had received the invoice dated 20/08 and had understandably assumed, without any contrary information, that the vehicle was available for 7 days from this date.
*We have a great number of vehicles being delivered to our delivery centres on a daily basis and, despite significantly expanding our storage capacity, it is not possible for us to hold cars for any number of days outside of the delivery window."
This is rubbish. It was clearly stated on the phone that the car available on the 7th was someone else's and the invoice with scheduled delivery of the 20th came after this call.
So it looks like I have to sit tight until October and hope that they don't suddenly change the date again. I travel a lot for work and so while I can keep a few days clear if Tesla stick to the window, if they bring it forward at very short notice I can't plan for that. I do not want this farce to repeat itself again.
Meanwhile, having handed over the money for the Model 3 and with no update from Kia, I called the dealer on Friday to cancel my order and get a refund on the deposit. The salesman had to call me back and immediately launched into, "Good news, we are told your car is built and awaiting shipment from Korea. We expect it here October 10th." I had to tell him it was too late and I wanted to cancel. He didn't seem surprised and I suspect I wasn't the first.
The final point in this saga was that on Saturday (September 7th) I received an email from Tesla asking me to pay my balance in full. I forwarded it to the delivery team who confirmed that, yes, I had already paid on August 14th and 15th. There was no idea why that was sent out.
Neither company comes out of this smelling of roses...