Hey everyone,
I just wanted to share my experience and hurdles of bring the Tesla Model S to Dubai from the US.
I figured I would share my experience to serve as a reference in case anyone is thinking importing a Tesla to Dubai. I had to deal with small hurdles and wished there was a reference of what to do.
At the Port:
The first hurdle was to get the car out of the container, after it has run out of battery. After a couple of hours and trying to reach Tesla about how to jump start the car, I found the negative and positive behind the nose cone and with a jumper cable was able to get enough juice in the car to back it out of the container.
Charging:
I was able to fly in a Tesla recommended electrician from the UK to help install the wall connector. I was worried about the local knowledge of installing EV car chargers and didn't want to take the risk. That was an entire day's work but was installed and working fine.
Insurance
I know Ames was struggling with finding an insurance company to do a comprehensive insurance in Dubai, happy to say I found one (took a while but there is one that will do it). The only issue you might face is, God forbid, if the car gets hit, there are no authorised body shops to fix your Tesla. Meaning you will have to ship the car back to the closest city with a certified body shop (in our case in Dubai I believe that would be the UK).
Registration
At the Vehicle Passing centers, before being able to register the car, I found out the hard way that some of the passing centers don't have the equipment to handle Electric Vehicles. I was stuck at this place trying to explain to the people working there that the car is Electric and therefore you cannot do an emissions testing, they told me that it cannot be done and gave me a list of things I would have to do before anyone could pass my car. To avoid all that, I recommend the Belhasa Center in Nad AlHamar, they are equipped and often not crowded. Also the supervisor knows what a Tesla is (What a relief) and getting it passed is a painless process
Servicing
This has been covered before, I believe you can fly in a Ranger from Europe to service the car for you at home. The only thing it will not cover is in case there are any issues with warranty you will have to ship the car to a Tesla Service Center.
It would be amazing for Tesla to get one of the local bodyshops certified, this way more underwriters would be willing to do a comprehensive insurance, and in case of an accident there would be a local shop to fix it. This would take care of virtually all the matters of having a Tesla in Dubai. I know they have no plans of opening in Dubai anytime soon but their cars are too awesome not to enjoy in Dubai.
FB
I just wanted to share my experience and hurdles of bring the Tesla Model S to Dubai from the US.
I figured I would share my experience to serve as a reference in case anyone is thinking importing a Tesla to Dubai. I had to deal with small hurdles and wished there was a reference of what to do.
At the Port:
The first hurdle was to get the car out of the container, after it has run out of battery. After a couple of hours and trying to reach Tesla about how to jump start the car, I found the negative and positive behind the nose cone and with a jumper cable was able to get enough juice in the car to back it out of the container.
Charging:
I was able to fly in a Tesla recommended electrician from the UK to help install the wall connector. I was worried about the local knowledge of installing EV car chargers and didn't want to take the risk. That was an entire day's work but was installed and working fine.
Insurance
I know Ames was struggling with finding an insurance company to do a comprehensive insurance in Dubai, happy to say I found one (took a while but there is one that will do it). The only issue you might face is, God forbid, if the car gets hit, there are no authorised body shops to fix your Tesla. Meaning you will have to ship the car back to the closest city with a certified body shop (in our case in Dubai I believe that would be the UK).
Registration
At the Vehicle Passing centers, before being able to register the car, I found out the hard way that some of the passing centers don't have the equipment to handle Electric Vehicles. I was stuck at this place trying to explain to the people working there that the car is Electric and therefore you cannot do an emissions testing, they told me that it cannot be done and gave me a list of things I would have to do before anyone could pass my car. To avoid all that, I recommend the Belhasa Center in Nad AlHamar, they are equipped and often not crowded. Also the supervisor knows what a Tesla is (What a relief) and getting it passed is a painless process
Servicing
This has been covered before, I believe you can fly in a Ranger from Europe to service the car for you at home. The only thing it will not cover is in case there are any issues with warranty you will have to ship the car to a Tesla Service Center.
It would be amazing for Tesla to get one of the local bodyshops certified, this way more underwriters would be willing to do a comprehensive insurance, and in case of an accident there would be a local shop to fix it. This would take care of virtually all the matters of having a Tesla in Dubai. I know they have no plans of opening in Dubai anytime soon but their cars are too awesome not to enjoy in Dubai.
FB