Will US Tesla work in Europe?

[KfcEater]

I hope to do the same thing with my US Model S.. eventually ship it to Greece. Not that there are any SCers there.. but there may be at some point.. and it will be nice to take advantage of them every now and again.

Greece? Dont get a Tesla to a country without a service center/offical support lol. You will have to ship it to Italy or to Austria for the annual service (recommended by tesla) let alone you wouldn't be be able to get it fixed quickly if any issue occurs. But we will get(Greece) Tesla presence soon if the rumors i am hearing here are correct. Possibly there will be a service center in the capital by 2021-22.

Also instead of US you can check out Netherlands (more expensive than the US for sure, but cheaper than most of europe. also possibly the biggest variety of used Teslas is there )

 

[rawrguthlaf]

Hey everyone, I contacted Arndt Automotive, the group who was featured in 2018 for having send 3 US Tesla Model 3 to Germany to be used in a rental fleet. In my opinion, these guys have the most experience with this arduous process. The tl;dr here is, DO NOT take a US Tesla Model 3 to Germany! Here is the Q&A I had with them below:


We had 3 US models and we can give the following feedback:


- No warranty work would be done?

Correct, Tesla does nothing!

- Tail lights need to be swapped?

Correct, we had modified the US version but use EU version if available and if it fits

- Need some sort of special adapter for supercharging to work?

We never tried supercharging because we were afraid to damage the battery or something else. EU version 2 phase charging / US version 1 phase charging.

What isn't clear to me is:

- Do autopilot / FSD features work?

Yes, it worked with our vehicles

- Is there a way to get European data to work reasonably? Does the US SIM work there? How do you make it work?

Not really, we modified the vehicle to have wifi and it just worked when the vehicle was parked (not possible to do a hotspot by phone and use it while driving)

- Do you get updates on wifi?

It was necessary to modify something, I don’t know exactly what

- Is there anything else to retrofit?

To register the vehicle in Germany you need a special report that confirms all parts that didn’t had EU homologation.

You need to change the fluid of the air condition, light check, ….. etc.. For the first check we paid +- 15.000,00 €, every additional vehicle that needed this report was +- 5.000,00 € (I guess…)

- Does the supercharging adapter still work & where do you buy one for a reasonable price?

We don’t know but I heard about “Juice booster”

 

[Galve2000]

My car will be out of warrantee when I ship it to Greece.

yesterday I drove for 1 hour and 35 minutes with my car on Wi-Fi tethered to my iPhone while driving from my summer home to my primary home so that I could download the latest software update. (software update downloaded successfully over Wi-Fi tethering I am happy to report.) I agree this limitation on Wi-Fi only while parked is buggy and annoying, but can work with a little patience and good will. the trick is to be constantly downloading something. as soon as there is a lull in downloading, the car will disconnect from WIFI while in motion. a very annoying security feature.

as for the tail lights, I only need my vehicle for 3-4 months of the year. so I will not fully naturalize it tho I will give it Greek plates specific to cars that don't get naturalized. as long as I don't use my car for more than 180 days a year -- and I don't intend to do so -- I don't have to naturalize the car, or change the tail lights.

that said, dealing with customs agents to make this process work can be a pain and my father recently naturalized his Lexus hybrid SUV after more than 10 years of abiding by the 180-day max rule. He has yet to change the tail lights and no one has bothered him about it so far, but it has only been a few months. Whether or not it will be a problem in the future remains to be seen.

this leaves SuperCharging. I will not need SCing capability for the next several years (b/c there are presently no SCers in Greece -- and honestly looking at the SCer map I find the imaginary (yet very clear) line that separates Western and Eastern Europe totally jarring -- but that will eventually change. It is my hope that these SCer adapters will still be available if and when I decide to ship my car overseas.

as an aside, it has been confirmed on TMC that the US-Spec ChAdeMO adapter does work with European ChAdeMO stations. so that is something. I could actually use ChAdeMO in Greece today.

I also bought a 4 year extended warrantee but it is refundable for the time it is not used as long as there are no major claims covered against it. But in general, I love my car and see no reason to upgrade so I will keep the car in the USA until things start to change in Greece.

 

[oliver4ever]

hello did anyone try this adapter ?

EVHUB-SuC-A Supercharger EU\US Type2 to US

 

[Xantos]

I Saw your post and want to share my experience, so I add my notes to yours.
Hope this helps others in the same situation.


We had 3 US models and we can give the following feedback:


- No warranty work would be done?

Correct, Tesla does nothing!
- Tesla have all the services on my car in Norway. But they don't want to change Navi etc. And its not under warranty here, so have to pay for it.

- Tail lights need to be swapped?

Correct, we had modified the US version but use EU version if available and if it fits
- I use the US tail lamps. did not need to do anything.

- Need some sort of special adapter for supercharging to work?

We never tried supercharging because we were afraid to damage the battery or something else. EU version 2 phase charging / US version 1 phase charging.
- I have the adapter that is mentioned in this thread and it works perfect. My car has free supercharging and it still does here in Europe. Have driven and used the superchargers in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.


What isn't clear to me is:

- Do autopilot / FSD features work?

Yes, it worked with our vehicles
- Works fine

- Is there a way to get European data to work reasonably? Does the US SIM work there? How do you make it work?

Not really, we modified the vehicle to have wifi and it just worked when the vehicle was parked (not possible to do a hotspot by phone and use it while driving)
- I have changed the SIM and the LTE module in the MCU so it works like normal.

- Do you get updates on wifi?

It was necessary to modify something, I don’t know exactly what
- The updates comes as normal when connected to wifi.

- Is there anything else to retrofit?

To register the vehicle in Germany you need a special report that confirms all parts that didn’t had EU homologation.

You need to change the fluid of the air condition, light check, ….. etc.. For the first check we paid +- 15.000,00 €, every additional vehicle that needed this report was +- 5.000,00 € (I guess…)
- It depends on the country. it costed €2000 to register the car in Norway.

- Does the supercharging adapter still work & where do you buy one for a reasonable price?

We don’t know but I heard about “Juice booster”
- Adapter works

 

[tadekh]

I Saw your post and want to share my experience, so I add my notes to yours.
Hope this helps others in the same situation.


We had 3 US models and we can give the following feedback:


- No warranty work would be done?

Correct, Tesla does nothing!
- Tesla have all the services on my car in Norway. But they don't want to change Navi etc. And its not under warranty here, so have to pay for it.

- Tail lights need to be swapped?

Correct, we had modified the US version but use EU version if available and if it fits
- I use the US tail lamps. did not need to do anything.

- Need some sort of special adapter for supercharging to work?

We never tried supercharging because we were afraid to damage the battery or something else. EU version 2 phase charging / US version 1 phase charging.
- I have the adapter that is mentioned in this thread and it works perfect. My car has free supercharging and it still does here in Europe. Have driven and used the superchargers in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.


What isn't clear to me is:

- Do autopilot / FSD features work?

Yes, it worked with our vehicles
- Works fine

- Is there a way to get European data to work reasonably? Does the US SIM work there? How do you make it work?

Not really, we modified the vehicle to have wifi and it just worked when the vehicle was parked (not possible to do a hotspot by phone and use it while driving)
- I have changed the SIM and the LTE module in the MCU so it works like normal.

- Do you get updates on wifi?

It was necessary to modify something, I don’t know exactly what
- The updates comes as normal when connected to wifi.

- Is there anything else to retrofit?

To register the vehicle in Germany you need a special report that confirms all parts that didn’t had EU homologation.

You need to change the fluid of the air condition, light check, ….. etc.. For the first check we paid +- 15.000,00 €, every additional vehicle that needed this report was +- 5.000,00 € (I guess…)
- It depends on the country. it costed €2000 to register the car in Norway.

- Does the supercharging adapter still work & where do you buy one for a reasonable price?

We don’t know but I heard about “Juice booster”
- Adapter works

My only concern is the SIM since you can't use Tesla app if your SIM doesn't work. Were you able to get it done by Tesla in Norway or other place? How does it work with paid premium connectivity. Is it still the same? I'm moving soon and already installed European taillights. They work great. Plug and play.

 

[Xantos]

My only concern is the SIM since you can't use Tesla app if your SIM doesn't work. Were you able to get it done by Tesla in Norway or other place? How does it work with paid premium connectivity. Is it still the same? I'm moving soon and already installed European taillights. They work great. Plug and play.

I had a local company change the LTE module and insert Local Sim. The App works fine for me now

 

[robolton]

I had a local company change the LTE module and insert Local Sim. The App works fine for me now

I'm moving to Germany in July and was hoping to bring my model S. Do you think I can charge the car in my home? Will I need an adapter just to charge it at home? If so, which one?

 

[ZeusF1]

I'm moving to Germany in July and was hoping to bring my model S. Do you think I can charge the car in my home? Will I need an adapter just to charge it at home? If so, which one?

You can modify you mobile connector, or take wall connector (US) with you.

 

[JAG]

Well this thread is dashing my hopes.

I have a 2017 MX 90d with the 70 amp 240 volt AC charger option.

When I bought the car I spoke to numerous sales associates in the Tesla Fashion Island Store in Newport Beach CA about my intent to put my car in a shipping container and go on a European tour and possibly extend that as the SC Network expanded. Two of my good friends bought a boat to sail around the world and I told them I would bring my car to Europe so we would have a car there. I get seasick on smaller boats so I was going to be their land support vehicle. I drive they sail. And I could snowboard.

I understood in China the SC plug is different so I was willing to rule that out but hoped to go to Japan.

Our US current is 60hz 120v single phase and I think for instance Japan is 100 volts and 50hz in some regions
https://images.tokyofromtheinside.com/2014/05/1000px-Power_Grid_of_Japan.jpg

IIRC We make we get 240 at the transformer pole which has two windings to drop our 240 volt AC in the USA by using to get + 120 phase and -120 phase to make a 240 volt AC plug we add them back together .
Europe offers I think 230 Volts single phase.

Picture is worth a thousand words.

Split-phase electric power - Wikipedia

I was hoping since Europe had 230 volt and 400 volt that feeding the 400 volt D.C. Tesla battery packs would just require a AC/DC converter.

I was also hoping since Tesla owned all the service centers that service could be nearly seamless country to country save for a few items like right hand steering and tail lights AND THEY WOULD OROVIDE WARRNTY SUPPORT if they could. And also was hoping Superchargers were standardized globally and was only deterred from that thought when China mandated a different plug. Disappointing as I am 1/2 Chinese and would have loved to tour China with its amazing road network joining all the provinces . Just watch the Grand Tour episode in China (Imdont speak Chines and would be comforted by Tesla's language pack on the display to navigate in English ) . Who wouldn't want to drive these MIND BLOWING roads?

And if you watch the entire episode you'll see they don't have a very good gas station infrastructure as it is lagging the fast road building. So I thought Tesla's (tesla maintained) Supercharger network once fully deployed would be the most reliable way to tour China .

My mom was born in Switzerland , grew up,in France as an infant , Elementry schooled in Holland, and Highschool,and college educated in the USA. She loved racing cars which was unusual for a Chinese woman and worked as a stock broker and analyst for Burham Lambert, Advest, and Oppenheimer . She raced at Limerock in her 1957 Gullwing the first year Limerock opened and won every race she entered we had 3 Gullwing, red, cream, and black. I bought my model X as tribute to her with its Gullwing doors.

My hopes were to retrace my mothers childhood in my car in Europe and eventually go to China as my friends sailed around the world. I'm not wealthy at all and my Model X is my biggest life expense and only expense right now I even Tesla camp at ski resorts, but was hoping the money I would save on gas And lodging in Europe would offset the shipping of my car from port to port. Plus my IKON ski pass works there.

I'm happy to let the car drive me so I can enjoy the scenery more. The only racing I do now is this. And it feels faster than 155mph in a car. I just want to do this in Europe too.

I used to design racing snowboard and skateboards. I couldn't afford to do car racing.

Tesla was going to be my affordable way to see the world at my own pace. Very sad to find out it will be harder.

All that said, I imagineI can drive most of North America, Canada and perhaps as far as Guatemala while supported by supercharging for free? Or is that also not true?

 

[ZeusF1]

Europe offers I think 230 Volts single phase.

Yes, so what? you still can charge it with UMC, J1772 and wallcharger....and so on
Charge in Europe is not an issue at all.
Your NEMA 14-50 is pretty same 240V outlet as have every house in Europe, you just use 1 wire(phase) instead of 2(on NEMA 14-50).

I was hoping since Europe had 230 volt and 400 volt that feeding the 400 volt D.C. Tesla battery packs would just require a AC/DC converter.

DC does not care on your charger. Any DC station ignore ACDC converter, and feeds directly into battery
Wonna use SC - go ahead.
Need internet - buy wifi modem in europe - 30-40$ + simcard

there are no global issues with Tesla, excluding warranty, NoA, an few other minor stuff, but NOT charging.

 

[typhoontk]

Something to look at an Official documentation from TESLA about Services/Warranty/Repair for the Vehicles out of their Original Purchased Country.
https://www.tesla.com/sites/default...p-experience-grey-market-grey-vehicles_NA.pdf

Charging the Vehicle won't be a problem for the US Tesla brought over to EU region. You just need to figure out the adapter which one fits which.

But for the Supercharger is a different story, like the adapter that is mentioned above the thread, if you don't use that, it will definitely do something wrong.


I was really really really hoping to bring Tesla Y from US to Germany, but since they do not( documentation says MAYBE ) endorse the Service/warranty/and repairs ( Except Recalls ). I cannot take it over there. Suck!! It's technically same car..... ( maybe? maybe? only very few things are different, maybe...).

Does anyone know, MAP ( Navigation ) works? if you have a wifi connected? ( I don't need to change anything to use the German map? just like Google map has almost many countries Navigation MAP on it ? )

 

[MovedOn121]

I really should comment more on this thread when I have time. I've been in Germany for over a year with my US spec 3, working for the army. Car works great other than no Nav, maps will update via WiFi and no issues with a supercharging adapter I bought over a year ago.

 

[Galve2000]

no issues with a supercharging adapter I bought over a year ago.

very interesting information.. which SCer adapter did you buy?

 

[AdamMacDon]

I really should comment more on this thread when I have time. I've been in Germany for over a year with my US spec 3, working for the army. Car works great other than no Nav, maps will update via WiFi and no issues with a supercharging adapter I bought over a year ago.

I'm interested to hear your experiences importing the car, do you mind if I DM you about it? I am in Canada and may need to make a move to Luxembourg soon for work. I'd ideally like to bring my 3, but I am a bit worried about potential issues like supercharging and service.

 

[typhoontk]

I'm interested to hear your experiences importing the car, do you mind if I DM you about it? I am in Canada and may need to make a move to Luxembourg soon for work. I'd ideally like to bring my 3, but I am a bit worried about potential issues like supercharging and service.

Dasbush121 is in US Military, so the movement of your vehicle process ( import/export ) would be totally different experience than what he went through to get his vehicle moved to Germany, due to being on an Official order of the military move, he is allowed to bring his car over to Germany NOT as Import/export category. But still he would be able to help you out in some processes.

 

[typhoontk]

I really should comment more on this thread when I have time. I've been in Germany for over a year with my US spec 3, working for the army. Car works great other than no Nav, maps will update via WiFi and no issues with a supercharging adapter I bought over a year ago.

Hey @Dasbush121, How are you? I am in the Army too . I will be heading there next April. I still want to bring Y with me. I have been researching little more about this topic. Bringing Y wouldn't be a problem for me. Just with the brand new car, it is unfortunate not able to use the 1 yr free of the infotainment system with the Map, Nav, internet services. Also, no warranty coverage is just little worrisome. But I am seriously debating it. Please let me know if you have had any issues with your Tesla 3 and any repairs or things that could hinder the idea of bringing the Y over. Thanks!

 

[AdamMacDon]

Dasbush121 is in US Military, so the movement of your vehicle process ( import/export ) would be totally different experience than what he went through to get his vehicle moved to Germany, due to being on an Official order of the military move, he is allowed to bring his car over to Germany NOT as Import/export category. But still he would be able to help you out in some processes.

I'm not too concerned with the import/export process, although I'm sure it's a hassle. I'd be going to Luxembourg specifically to handle the acquisition and merger of my company. From what I have researched I am allowed to temporarily import it to Luxembourg as part of my relocation process for relatively cheap (a couple hundred Euros), as long as I have owned the vehicle for more than a year here (I have). Also it looks like with RORO shipping I can pay as low as $980 to ship my car from Halifax to the Netherlands.

I'm more wondering his experience with charging and the service elements. From what I have read, Tesla pretty much won't support an NA car in the EU, so I'd be praying that the drive unit and battery survive a year, and just ignore the small issues that come up till I get home again. Charging is the other big one since all the connectors are different (except J1772 and CHADEMO), and there is also the whole single phase vs 3 phase thing. The other nice to hear about would be a supercharger adapter that allows me to travel the EU area if I have free time. Being stuck on level 2 charging would suck. I found this adapter for (relatively) cheap, but wondering if anyone has used it. I don't really want to drop nearly a grand and find out it won't work! NEW! Tesla Supercharger Adapter – European to US – EVSE Adapters

 

[typhoontk]

I'm not too concerned with the import/export process, although I'm sure it's a hassle. I'd be going to Luxembourg specifically to handle the acquisition and merger of my company. From what I have researched I am allowed to temporarily import it to Luxembourg as part of my relocation process for relatively cheap (a couple hundred Euros), as long as I have owned the vehicle for more than a year here (I have). Also it looks like with RORO shipping I can pay as low as $980 to ship my car from Halifax to the Netherlands.

I'm more wondering his experience with charging and the service elements. From what I have read, Tesla pretty much won't support an NA car in the EU, so I'd be praying that the drive unit and battery survive a year, and just ignore the small issues that come up till I get home again. Charging is the other big one since all the connectors are different (except J1772 and CHADEMO), and there is also the whole single phase vs 3 phase thing. The other nice to hear about would be a supercharger adapter that allows me to travel the EU area if I have free time. Being stuck on level 2 charging would suck. I found this adapter for (relatively) cheap, but wondering if anyone has used it. I don't really want to drop nearly a grand and find out it won't work! NEW! Tesla Supercharger Adapter – European to US – EVSE Adapters

AdamMacDon,

Hi, if it is a short term, with what you explained then that should be no issues for you for the visit to EU.
As for the Services, since they don't endorse the repairs/issues under warranty, it will just have come out of your pocket if there are any incidents to be happen.

As far as I've researched, I am not sure of the Netherlands ( I heard there are very few service centers ). But in Germany, people in service centers have worked very well with the owners of NA spec cars ( same thing goes for paying out of pocket issue ).

The link you shared about the supercharger adapter ( that is the one of three websites ) I have seen and people did buy them, and it does cost around 600 EU to 800 EU, depending on which websites you get it from.
I've heard from several owners that adapter works great without any issues for supercharger.
As for people say, it would be a good idea to get the long type 2 charging cables for the DC and non-tesla charging stations, if Supercharger is not available, and some people said they have used regular charger more than Chademo, but Chademo can come in handy.

I also will keep on updating as I get more information from other people.

 

[AdamMacDon]

AdamMacDon,

Hi, if it is a short term, with what you explained then that should be no issues for you for the visit to EU.
As for the Services, since they don't endorse the repairs/issues under warranty, it will just have come out of your pocket if there are any incidents to be happen.

As far as I've researched, I am not sure of the Netherlands ( I heard there are very few service centers ). But in Germany, people in service centers have worked very well with the owners of NA spec cars ( same thing goes for paying out of pocket issue ).

The link you shared about the supercharger adapter ( that is the one of three websites ) I have seen and people did buy them, and it does cost around 600 EU to 800 EU, depending on which websites you get it from.
I've heard from several owners that adapter works great without any issues for supercharger.
As for people say, it would be a good idea to get the long type 2 charging cables for the DC and non-tesla charging stations, if Supercharger is not available, and some people said they have used regular charger more than Chademo, but Chademo can come in handy.

I also will keep on updating as I get more information from other people.

Yeah I think it'd be a year or two at the absolute most to finish the project, if it takes more than 6 months I think I have to register it, but hopefully can avoid all the insane tax they have in the EU, especially since I already paid a hefty 13% tax here in Canada.

I'm also pretty mechanically inclined, so I will likely be doing important repairs myself. I just hope they will sell me parts. Getting parts even here in Canada is nearly impossible, I have to go to the next province over to get parts since the one here usually just ghosts me

Yeah I don't think CHADEMO is very useful, even here in Canada. CCS is certainly winning the fight (and rightfully so), but having more options in a foreign country is always good, even if it is costly.