Right-Hand Drive, why such a wait?

[PeterW]

With the announcement of European pricing came the news that deliveries of right-hand drive vehicles for the UK market (and presumably Hong Kong and Aussie/NZ) would begin Late 2013. This would mean that virtually anyone currently(as of 01-01-13)that has a reservation for a left-hand drive vehicle will receive their Model S before anyone in the UK, Hong Kong or Australia.

I want the thoughts of others on this subject, especially those who put down their deposit in 2009 and now know they have to wait until the last quarter of 2013.

I would like to know why they are waiting so long to do a batch of right-hand drive vehicles?
Are there not enough reservations yet to justify it?
How many would be enough?
Is it difficult to change the production line to achieve this?
Would there be a substantial down time involved in changing the line over and back again?
Is Tesla waiting until the car is perfect before they risk Top Gear getting there hands on it?
Are stores, service centres, data plans an issue?
Do they want to be able to set up their Super-Charging network in the UK in conjunction with deliveries?
Other issues?

 

[markwj]

I think UK is a relatively small market for Tesla. Certainly not a huge number of roadsters there.

That leaves HK and AU/NZ - neither enormous.

So, perhaps they just want to concentrate on the factory ramp up with one model before introducing variants. They also need to do a lot of work for Europe - with each country being slightly different.

 

[Alan]

Has anyone in the UK been given anything more precise than late 2013? Any word on test drives?

I put down a deposit just before Christmas to lock in the lower price

 

[Lyon]

Blame it on Jeremy Clarkson.

 

[PeterW]

Blame it on Jeremy Clarkson.

Based on the figures here:

Tesla Model S demand by population

I wonder how true that statement is!