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The situation in Iceland

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I‘m concerned that Iceland doesn‘t seem to be in Tesla‘s future plans. When looking at the map of stores/service stations in EU here (http://www.teslamotors.com/en_EU/findus/stores) Iceland is left out (like many other EU countries I realize). That being said, I know that Gísli Gíslason has been given some sort of a dealership privileges for Iceland, and as far as I know, Iceland is the only country that seems to have to suffer a dealership if interested in buying a Tesla. His method of selling the cars also worries me. In this article http://www.plugincars.com/tesla-model-s-iceland-first-7-cars-movers-and-shakers-128446.html one can read that Gísli made a list, on which his wealthy friends were, of people he offered the cars to. I know Tesla is an exclusive vehilce but come on. If this way of business continues the image of the brand here will be „rich boys toy“ instead of „cutting edge, high tech vehicle of the future“ and what then when Gen3/BlueStar comes along? We are badly burned by rich boys toying with our banks before the collapse in 2008 so it won‘t be hard for the general public, who I believe Tesla eventually wants to reach, to put two and two together. Another thing is Gísli is loosing credibilty. For years hes been on about how next year he will import so and so many hundred EVs or install so and so many charging stations around the country. He even fooled Elon Musk into believing he would buy 1000 Model S‘s. To be fair to Gísli, he has brought in and sold about 12 cars and I believe a few more are on the way. He gave car reporters of all of the newspapers here a Model S to try out and all of their verdict was the same: this was something entierly different. And the future. For now there is no dealership/store one can visit to see/try a Model S himself. EVEN (Gísli‘s Tesla import company) never advertises the brand or organizes a show in lets say one of our big malls. Complete silence from them if your not deemed worthy.

Here in Iceland we have very similar taxcuts on automobiles that use domestic energy as Norway has. No duty or VAT is paid when importing, road tax is really low and they can be parked for free in public parking spaces. This does not mean that electric vehicles are cheap here, they are actually rather more expensive that ICE cars, initially. But what we do have is electricity in abundace, green and cheap geothermal and hydroelectric electricity. Another valuable asset we have is EV awereness. Most of us know about EVs and how far they have come. There has been a huge media coverage both in newspapers and evening news on TV of how Norwegians have fared in electrifying their fleet, hence we know that Tesla can make it in Icelandic conditions.

Islandus.is is a company that imports cars from aboad, mainly from the US, and sells them on to the Icelandic public in a sort of a greyish import way. The have no brands of their own but buy at, what they call, spotprice and sometimes hardly used showmodels from dealerships in the US. They have been marketing EVs in Iceland more than anyone and actually have gotten the biggest piece of the Nissan Leaf pie here. The Nissan dealership here is furious but they don‘t slash their price nonetheless. So, where does islandus.is fit into the icelandic Tesla situation? They are the only ones advertising Tesla in the icelandic media. For the most part of november they had a half page ad next to the car classifieds in Iceland‘s most widespread newspaper that either featured the Model S or the Leaf. They have been pushing the Model S but as far as I know they have not delivered any.

Icelanders like their SUVs. Next year the Model X comes out. By then I‘d like Tesla to have given a second thought about how they want the Icelandic market to develop. I do realise that we aren‘t a small market, we‘re a micro maret. But that has advantages to. It doesn‘t cost much to reach a huge portion of the population. We live on an island with a 1300km/800miles ringroute around the island (to which all other roads connect) so we wouldn‘t need many supercharging stations. All of our electricity is domestic and green as stated before so I‘d imagine if Tesla did things right here (opened up their own store like everywhere else) and did manage to get a 20-30% market share (which I think is highly realistic) that might have an advertising effect for the brand around the world. And since we‘re a micromarket, reaching that market share wouldn‘t need that many cars to be produced.
 
We currently have 4 Tesla stores in Norway, which works out to around 1.25 million people per store. With 300,000 people, that means Iceland should have around 0.25 stores... Even if the number of stores here doubles, that would still imply that Iceland should have a max of 0.5 stores. (And Norway is the most densely covered country, relative to population. The US has for instance more than 10 million people per store.) Iceland isn't much of a market at all, which is unfortunate, for your sake.

Also, what version of the Model S are you receiving? If it's 50% US spec and 50% EU spec, that would really hamper any possible deployment of SC.

If I lived in Iceland, I think I would rather consider a car like the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. It's more suited to the conditions.
 
Yggdrasill, your calculations are all right and true. But like I stated in the OP I do believe there are opportunities for Tesla in our micro market.

I'm not sure which versions Gísli is importing but I think they are US spec.

The Outlander, in my mind, is not even a player here. If you have to buy, in one vehicle, both an electric motor and batteries + internal combustion engine with all the associated running costs over the live span of the car you end up buying a hugely expensive car that takes longer time to pay up the initial expense. Plus, the taxcuts only apply for cars that only run on domestic fuels/energy. That said, the import duty is calculated from Co2 release so it would still be low for the Outlander. But then again, our VAT is 25,5%...
 
@Premium, I'm an American who has twice spent several weeks on vacation in your beautiful country. I appreciate your interest in Tesla but suspect that at this early stage in the growth of the company it could be hard to justify starting direct sales given the population of Iceland is about 312,000. There are probably dozens of American cities (and many more European cities) with much larger populations that do not yet have a Tesla showroom and service center.

I do hope that in the future Icelanders will have the opportunity to buy direct from Tesla.

When I was in Reykjavik this year I looked for electric cars but didn't see any.
 
Yggdrasill, your calculations are all right and true. But like I stated in the OP I do believe there are opportunities for Tesla in our micro market.

I'm not sure which versions Gísli is importing but I think they are US spec.

The Outlander, in my mind, is not even a player here. If you have to buy, in one vehicle, both an electric motor and batteries + internal combustion engine with all the associated running costs over the live span of the car you end up buying a hugely expensive car that takes longer time to pay up the initial expense. Plus, the taxcuts only apply for cars that only run on domestic fuels/energy. That said, the import duty is calculated from Co2 release so it would still be low for the Outlander. But then again, our VAT is 25,5%...
I did some calculations here, and arrived at the Outlander PHEV costing almost exactly as much as a reasonably equipped 85 kWh Model S for me, over 225k km/15 years including all taxes, fuel, financing, tires, insurance, etc. So, if your tax scheme is similar to here, you can afford it if you can afford a Model S. (Our VAT is 25.0% and the Outlander PHEV is also taxed by an additional ~6500 USD.)

Of course, the Model S has a lot more performance and a better interior, but on the other hand the Outlander has a tow hitch and AWD.
 
If you want a test drive, talk to Tesla and arrange a test drive in Norway.

If you want a Tesla store and superchargers in Iceland, buy a lot of cars. If you want to buy a Tesla, contact Tesla. You can probably arrange with Tesla to get the car delivered to you in the new store in Århus, Denmark and then just take the ferry from Hirtshals to Iceland. (Or Stavanger, Kristiansand or Oslo, if you prefer to deal with Norwegian Tesla staff instead of Danish Tesla staff.) Or maybe they can deliver the car on the ferry for you, so that you can pick it up in Iceland.

You should check if Tesla will do ranger service on the car for you in Iceland, though.

Get together with other Icelandic Tesla owners and set up 22kW Type2 chargers every 200km or so around the country, near towns, hotels and restaurants, and you'll be covered. If you build a network of chargers, I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd love to take the ferry with my Tesla and drive around on Iceland. Right now, it doesn't look like there are many EV charging stations in Iceland. Or am I wrong?

BTW: Nobody is advertising Tesla in Norway. Tesla doesn't really advertise. They may loan a car here and there to the media, that's it. The car sells itself, specially after a test drive.
 
@Premium, I'm an American who has twice spent several weeks on vacation in your beautiful country. I appreciate your interest in Tesla but suspect that at this early stage in the growth of the company it could be hard to justify starting direct sales given the population of Iceland is about 312,000. There are probably dozens of American cities (and many more European cities) with much larger populations that do not yet have a Tesla showroom and service center.

I do hope that in the future Icelanders will have the opportunity to buy direct from Tesla.

When I was in Reykjavik this year I looked for electric cars but didn't see any.

I'm glad you enjoyed your stay in Iceland, welcome back any time. You are right, we are a micro market and we'll have to wait our turn. What the main point of mine was, is that I'm fear that when the time comes Tesla won't do it because a private companies have established themselves as dealerships here. I really like Tesla's business strategy of eliminating the middle man but I am afraid that won't be the case here.

@ Premium

Would you yourself like to buy a Model S? If so, have you contacted Tesla and asked them about how to proceed?

I would like a Model S, yes, but I can't afford a new one. I'm waiting for the Model E or perhaps a used Model S/X in the future.

If you want a test drive, talk to Tesla and arrange a test drive in Norway.

If you want a Tesla store and superchargers in Iceland, buy a lot of cars. If you want to buy a Tesla, contact Tesla. You can probably arrange with Tesla to get the car delivered to you in the new store in Århus, Denmark and then just take the ferry from Hirtshals to Iceland. (Or Stavanger, Kristiansand or Oslo, if you prefer to deal with Norwegian Tesla staff instead of Danish Tesla staff.) Or maybe they can deliver the car on the ferry for you, so that you can pick it up in Iceland.

You should check if Tesla will do ranger service on the car for you in Iceland, though.

Get together with other Icelandic Tesla owners and set up 22kW Type2 chargers every 200km or so around the country, near towns, hotels and restaurants, and you'll be covered. If you build a network of chargers, I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd love to take the ferry with my Tesla and drive around on Iceland. Right now, it doesn't look like there are many EV charging stations in Iceland. Or am I wrong?

BTW: Nobody is advertising Tesla in Norway. Tesla doesn't really advertise. They may loan a car here and there to the media, that's it. The car sells itself, specially after a test drive.

I'm not looking to buy now, I'm just thinking ahead. I spoke to a manager at my gas station (privately owned shop that sells gas for one of the oil companies here) and talked with about electric cars. He told me he'd been given a green light to install a plug. He's currently looking for someone interested in installing it. Surely, he's not the only one in the country.
ou've got a point about the advertisements.

I did some calculations here, and arrived at the Outlander PHEV costing almost exactly as much as a reasonably equipped 85 kWh Model S for me, over 225k km/15 years including all taxes, fuel, financing, tires, insurance, etc. So, if your tax scheme is similar to here, you can afford it if you can afford a Model S. (Our VAT is 25.0% and the Outlander PHEV is also taxed by an additional ~6500 USD.)

Of course, the Model S has a lot more performance and a better interior, but on the other hand the Outlander has a tow hitch and AWD.

Again, your calculations are probably right, but then again, Outlander is nowhere near as "much" of a car as Model S is. I'd be spending the same amount on a car that is lesser but costs the same. Plus, I'm not really a believer in hybrids. Small ICE + small battery capacity for a huge amount.
 
My understanding of Iceland is that it is powered almost entirely by geothermal and hydroelectric power. The fossil fuels they use are basically just for vehicles, including cars and the fishing fleet. If cars there were electric, the country would be even more of a beacon of sustainability. Even if it isn't a huge market I think it would be a good place to invest in at some point.

Also, my username is purely coincidental, I just thought the name of the capital sounded cool so I use it as a username.
 
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You can look at what Mario did in Estonia:
http://www.teslamotors.com/forum/forums/estonian-reservation-holders-unite
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/show...l-S-purchase-in-a-country-without-Tesla-store

Estonia not in Tesla's plans, but it's in the EU and thus it's possible to purchase one and still get warranty support.

Iceland is a bit special, as it's not an EU member, although it's part of the Schengen Area as a non-member state:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accession_of_Iceland_to_the_European_Union
 
The deal with EVEN may have been done as an experiment and may have special terms on pricing and so on. I see nothing in the article linked to suggest that there is any favoritism, only that some wealthy Icelanders bought the car. If you want to test drive, contact EVEN and ask about their price. If you don't like it, do the import work yourself.

I think that for small markets, an arrangement through an experienced importer makes sense. Tesla just needs to make sure that the terms are controlled so people don't have a "dealership" experience. In the USA, the car franchise laws are such that they are undesirable for a manufacturer because the law grants strong independence.
 
@ escarfan
I'm glad you enjoyed your stay in Iceland, welcomeback any time. You are right, we are a micro market and we'll have to wait ourturn. What the main point of mine was, is that I'm fear that when the timecomes Tesla won't do it because a private companies have established themselvesas dealerships here. I really like Tesla's business strategy of eliminating themiddle man but I am afraid that won't be the case here.

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@ SwedishAdvocate
I would like a Model S, yes, but I can't afford a newone. I'm waiting for the Model E or perhaps a used Model S/X in the future.

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@ fredag
I'm not looking to buy now, I'm just thinking ahead. Ispoke to a manager at my gas station (privately owned shop that sells gas forone of the oil companies here) and talked with him about electric cars. He told mehe'd been given a green light to install a plug. He's currently looking for someoneinterested in installing it. Surely, he's not the only one in the country.
You'vegot a point about the advertisements.


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@ Yggdrasill
Again, your calculations are probably right, but thenagain, Outlander is nowhere near as "much" of a car as Model S is.I'd be spending the same amount on a car that is lesser but costs the same.Plus, I'm not really a believer in hybrids. Small ICE + small battery capacityfor a huge amount.

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@ Reykjavik
You're right, we import fossil fuel almost only for our cars/buses/lorries, ships/boats and planes plus various agricultural machines. We don't heat our houses with fossil fuel, we either use geothermal power to heat up water for central heating or create electricity using geothermal or hydroelectric powerplants and the houses that way. It would be of huge importance for us as a tiny nation that have to import all our fossil fuel and pay for it with real currency if we could power our private cars with electricity.
Nice username btw ;)

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@ stopcrazypp
Iceland is not a member of the EU but we are members of the European economic area which has all the benefits of being in the EU except we have no say on legislation but we do have to follow them as they come from Bruxelles and we can't have the Euro.

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@ Mario Kadastik
I'll read your story soon ;)

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@ ItsNotAboutTheMoney
I know there's nothing in the article about favoritsm but Iceland is a small island and word gets around fast. It didn't reach plugincars.com but it reached me. Like I said somewhere above, I'm not looking at buying right now, I'm not sure I could handle the tormentation of test driving it although I wouldn't say no given the chance, but I am thinking ahead, to the future.
 
I have been vacationing in Iceland with my family for the past week. It is a beautiful country and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys unspoiled nature.

Today my son spotted a Signature Red Model S behind our bus. As we turned into our hotel the Tesla was following us! Turns out it belongs to the owner of Hotel Ranga, Fridrik Palsson. He is a delightful guy who loves his Model S, the second one delivered in Iceland last November. He was raving about the great traction in the snow as he drove the car all through the long winter.

I learned that all of the cars delivered in Iceland are European specification and that they are hoping to get their first supercharger installation by the end of 2014.

So if you decide to visit Iceland be sure to stay at Hotel Ranga so you can spend some Tesla time with the owner!


159E6199-3958-45B1-A848-9E09BE7CBDF6_zpsg4ybyzmx.jpg
 
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I was curious how the current Tesla situation in Iceland is doing. It really does seem like an ideal country to be completely EV-afied. Are there any plans to build Superchargers? It seems as though they would only need a few to cover the entire country. I see that 5 Teslas were delivered in Dec, 2013. Does anyone know how many are being delivered now, over a year later? Has the charging situation improved over that time?