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When the Boat Comes In...

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When I did my Tesla factory tour last May, we saw completed EU cars that underwent all the final tests. Then the cars went to a spur line where the battery (and possibly some other stuff) was removed. At that time, they said that they put two cars per shipping container for any destination not in the Continental USA. They had shipping queues for Tilburg, Drammen and Honolulu. Asian orders had not commenced shipping yet.

Thanks interesting! (I wonder if you saw my car going down the line? slim chance I know, i only mention it because mine is a May'14 build! :D)

So it seems cars come in as containerized rolling chassis, on container ships rather than specialized bulk vehicle transports, which answers my logistics questions.

Here are some photos of what happens the other end.
Tesla Motors in The Netherlands - 32 photos - GTspirit

You can clearly see the motor is in a separate crate, and there are battery shipping boxes too. One photo clearly shows a car coming out of a container through loading bay doors (probably staged for photographic effect if the cars can't drive at this point). You can also see a specialized car moving equipment.

All very interesting!

This all just seems so pointless and inefficient to assemble -> disassemble -> reassemble cars ! (especially when shipping them in containers is more expensive than in bulk vehicle ships)

But this isn't the place to start a debate on the moralities of gaming international taxation loopholes ;)
 
I am really hoping they mean 1st week of August assuming no delays.

I am heading back to Suffolk mid August for a couple of weeks and hope to meet up with my old school friend who is half American. He went back to live in the US for 15 years and then got back together with his teenage sweetheart and moved back to the UK 5 years ago. He loves cars and has done lots of valeting type jobs when he could get work since he has been back. He really love US cars and goes to the US car meets, but pretty sure he has not encountered the newest US car company's products!

Anyhow, he has just been diagnosed with stage 3 pancreatic cancer and whilst he is confident he will eek out 12-24 months I know it can snatch people much quicker (my father-in-law had 4 months from diagnosis). I have chucked some cash towards his bucket list, but it would be much more personal to do a road-trip in the Tesla (if he is well enough) around our teenage haunts, take some photos and videos for his collection that he wants to pass to his just turned 1 year old son.

I might reach out to my DES to see if there is any inkling of when the RHDs will hit UK soil in August.

There is a bit more about James at the following link.

http://www.gofundme.com/oeyk8o