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South Korea

Will a Tesla bought in the US work in South Korea?


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Sorry, the car was/is filthy from a road trip and I haven't had time to wash it. Went to the car wash today but the attendant wasn't there and I needed a wash mid and drying towels. I didn't bring anything with me... So I went to EMart and got supplies but ran out of motivation. This weekend I'll get her cleaned up. I hope LOL
 
Hi, all. Thanks for all the great advice in this forum. I'm about to head to Korea with my wife, who's a State employee, on an A-1 visa. We're looking into purchasing a Tesla before we move. Seems like charging an American-made Tesla in Korea is possible, though it may require an adapter. What's the consensus on the warranty? Is it automatically voided when you export your Tesla to Korea? In case it's relevant, I don't think any SOFA privileges apply to us since we are not military.

Any advice on this topic would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
 
Hello there,

I've been in the Pyeongtaek area for a little over a month now. I shipped my M3 from Savannah, and so far, driving around has been amazing. As the majority of you guys know, the US-Spec navigation doesn't work here. I started using Waze as an alternative since it helped to navigate on-post, but I mainly use Kakao Map on my phone. It works great here. I just had to input locations to the superchargers and few destination chargers into the favorites for future reference. I tried mirroring Kakao Map and Waze through WebKey on the M3 browser. Unfortunately, for me, it wasn't reliable as it disconnects often. So I only use Kakao on my phone.

I have used the superchargers in Cheonan, Dangjin, Seongnam, and Suwon locations. All have been free except Suwon. I'm not sure if it was because of where it is located (Lotte Mall). The few destination chargers I have visited had also been free.

The one issue I have is that I did not get the blue license plates when I registered the car since they don't fit the US-SPec bracket. I visited and spoke with Seoul's service centers about getting the long plate bracket, but they would not sell it to me for unknown reasons. I'll appreciate it if any of you has an idea on to get ahold of these brackets.
 
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Hello there,
I have used the superchargers in Cheonan, Dangjin, Seongnam, and Suwon locations. All have been free except Suwon. I'm not sure if it was because of where it is located (Lotte Mall). The few destination chargers I have visited had also been free.

All superchargers in Korea were free up until the end of October. They went paid across the country on October 26th (a firmware update was even sent to Korean Teslas).
 
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Here's my experience driving old MS shipped from the States in the Korea as a DoD personnel.

  • Centerscreen becomes complete useless. Google map does not work in the Korea. The only way that you can use is by connecting HotSpot from Egg or your cellphone so that your location can be shown in the map. By the way, google map is very outdated, like 2014-2015?
  • Supercharger works good. But obviously, it is a lot more compacted and smaller place to visit compare to the States. The charging speed seems slightly slower than the States as well.
  • I've been praying for not having any issues with the car since the arrival. Unfortunately, door handle started not working, and one of the window does not roll up automatically. It is so annoying to book the service appointment which is far from now (2-3 months ahead of today).
  • Since I don't get a blue license plate, no electric vehicle benefit applies as well. The only way that you could get some discount is to get the Hi-pass from the place that manually register your car as an electric vehicle.
  • Charging is a lot more expensive in Korea. To charge my car from 20%-80%, I roughly spend about 15,000 KRW. In the States, I have never paid that much. Gas is cheap in the base, so I see no reason not to drive hybrid vehicle to save the cost.

I would have not brought the car to the country if I knew all of these. However, it is still a great car to drive. I miss the navigation feature of the vehicle, which I used all the time.
 
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Unfortunately, door handle started not working, and one of the window does not roll up automatically. It is so annoying to book the service appointment which is far from now (2-3 months ahead of today).

The window issue can usually be resolved with a simple recalibration that you can do. Google 'Tesla <your model> window recalibration' for the specifics for your car.
 
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Google Maps is hamstrung by South Korean laws. If Car Play was a thing I would be able to use Waze on the big screen at least.

I feel bad for your issues bringing a USDM 3 to Korea, but this is exactly why I jumped through hoops to buy an SKDM 3. I won't be able to take it home but I don't plan on shipping ANY car back now that it's a taxed benefit, and I think it will be time for a new generation EV by then.