Nov 22, 2013
Mario Kadastik Well in reality it's two Model S's, but one will continue its way to Finland immediately and be registered there so that kind of only half countsAlso I'm currently guessing that they are the first two cars because at least on 31.10.2013 there were 0 registered Model S's in Estonia, I will know for 100% certainty tomorrow when I call our equivalent of DMV because I want to validate that all paperwork is pre-arranged and ready when the car arrives (they've been super supportive btw).
It's been an eventful ride getting here and will be an even more eventful ride going forward for sure. So I thought of creating a thread where I will keep track of all that is happening in the pre-anticipation of final delivery as well as the first impressions and hassles it takes for a first car of a country
So to tell everything honestly I'd have to start from the very beginning. I had been interested in Tesla as such for a very long time and following the progress it was making. I knew there had even been a roadster in Estonia owned by a guy who owns the casino chain and at least used to be the richest person in Estonia. I had never imagined that I'd be actually able to purchase the car, but just for the fun of it when the cars actually started to arrive I started to investigate this July/August. I used the configurator and started to look into what it'd cost. I immediately went with the 85 kWh battery as I'd really prefer driving as much as possible without the need to charge anywhere but at home and have at times to take a round trip to Tartu that is 187km away so with the S60 it'd be a close call in summer and a definite miss in winter. With the 85 kWh battery it'll be a sneeze in summer and might just make it in winter depending on conditions. Now the infrastructure around here is one of the best in world. We have a charger every 50-60km and every single one of them can do 3x32A Type-II or CHAdeMO at 50kW so at worst I'd just need to stop for a short time and recharge the missing 20-30km.
Having a first price idea I started to compute the TCO of the car and was seriously surprised that the TCO barring insurance came to be only slightly above my costs of the car I was driving at the time (Evo X) which was a 3x cheaper car. So I got really excited and started to investigate further. Being a person who always digs to the deepest details when he gets interested in something I immediately delved into TMC and TM forum (excellent resources, grats to all who have answered my tons of questions here) as well as started to organize and enquire about all the aspects needed to operate the car here.
So first off financing. Estonia has a neat incentive program where EV's are subsidized with up to 18 000 eur if they are new (or at least less than 6 months old) and the subsidy must not exceed 50% for private citizens or 35% for companies. With the MS it was a no brainer as already the base 60 kWh model exceeds those conditions to qualify for the maximum 18k. So the car was going to be 18k cheaper than configured. I also planned to take it into financing, but that got a bit problematic at first. Namely I found out that all banks in Estonia had a requirement that the car will only be taken into financing when the car is registered in Estonia however Tesla requires pre-payment before delivery. So a serious chicken and egg problem. Luckily enough after some tedious discussions the bank did agree that if I purchase the car myself, transport it to Estonia and register they will buy it from me into financing. After some more haggling because they were unsure initially what to leave as the remainder value after 5 years I was able to get them to agree on 20% (I had proposed 25%, they 15%, 20% was compromise).
So financing taken care of the next big aspect was insurance. I took one of the portals that allows you to enter the car details and it'll get you insurance pricing from all insurance companies to compare. First hurdle of course was that Tesla was not in the list to be selected so I had to write an e-mail to the site owners to make them do the query manually. Only two companies came up, the two biggest. And the sight wasn't pretty. Their initial offers were for 8000� / year to insure the car at relatively outrageous conditions (�1000-�3000 deductible, remote tracking install required and they wouldn't cover transport to Tesla for repairs). So a two month long haggling ensued where I managed to work myself up to heads of risk assessment in those insurances and had long chats with them face to face introducing the car, the drivetrain the risks. I even asked Tesla to provide me with common parts needed for repair and their pricing. Overall they were not too keen to reduce the pricing, but one was willing to come down to ca �4500 and the risk head was actually really curious about the Model S and really curious about the Model X for himself). I also pushed then my banks insurance who had originally flat out refused to insure to give me contacts to their risk management head. The person called me one afternoon and we had a 1.5h chat over the phone about the car, the risks involved and what they worried about and what I could alleviate. I sent him tons of threads from here including the huge accidents that were highlighted and showed how little damage the car took. Just around that time the NHTSA published the crash test results so that was extra material that showed excellently how the car handled in various situations. He promised to get back to me in about 2-3 weeks after some internal discussions. So being a bit more hopeful (it had started to look really bleak) I reserved my Model S and paid the deposit.
Now, I'm not really a person to buy a pig in a bag so even though all the stuff I found on the net was excellent and I did believe in the car I needed to drive the car. Luckily enough my work takes me back and forth to Geneva and I had a trip coming up in a week so I called up Tesla representative in Geneva, Jacque Michelle, and explained my situation that I would be in Geneva only for 1 day and if he could somehow squeeze me into his schedule. He promised to take a look and after some back and forth I was able to match his schedule to mine for a short 20 minute trip from some small location in France (the location of the experiment) to CERN. The only way this was going to work was if he would drive to my location and I'd use the test drive as my means of getting back to main CERN campus so I was really impressed with him doing this and it actually slightly screwed up his schedule as my meeting overran, but he was still very accommodating and helpful throughout the drive back and I have to say the car was really excellent. The moment I came around the corner and first saw it I was convinced I wanted it. The acceleration (it was a P85+) was nice in the lack of lag and I used it a few times to get in between at small roundabouts (remember I was coming from an Evo X so strong torque and good handling were a given) and I was sold on the car
So the moment I got back to the hostel I wrote to the insurance guy and said that I loved the car and would really love to get it, but it all hinged on his insurance offer. The next morning I awoke to a reply from him with an offer of �2300 / year with reasonable conditions all around. Yes, it's 2x as expensive as an Audi S5 insurance, but for the very first Model S ever inquired in any insurance company in Estonia that was a damned reasonable price. So I went ahead and confirmed my order. About 4h after I did people started asking me if I was sure I wanted the S85 and not the P85. Of course I had been insistent on 19" rims and had assumed the P85 couldn't be ordered with those. A new check and boy was I surprised to find that I could get the P85 with 19" rims. So I started calling everyone at Tesla to ask if I could upgrade to a P85 as most what was bundled with P85 I had already added as options so the price hike wasn't that bad. Finally got in touch with Wouter Wildbret at Tesla in Tilburg and boy has that guy been a life saver over all of my contacts with Tesla. He's made things possible that many flat out denied could be done at any point anymore and has been a positive voice that has helped me and others who ordered their cars around here. I've already promised him multiple beers, now I just have to get to Amsterdam at some point to buy them to him
So having ordered the car, having checked that Tesla qualified for the subsistence, having found financing and an insurance offer all I had next to do was to wait. So I started searching for others who had ordered or planned to order the car and was soon rewarded in finding another Estonian posting on the TM forum. We got in touch and have been actively discussing all things Tesla and local to EV's to pass the time and figure out what else needed doing. I looked for a charger and after asking ABB and others around here got a hint for http://ratio.nl/. I found a nice 3x32A charger for under 800� (the government also subsidizes EV home charger installations up to 1000�), which I ordered and after some searching found Loek's cable shop in the Netherlands as well (TMC user LuckyLuke) and was pleasantly surprised by the cable prices and his active responses so thanks a ton Loek (btw the cables arrived today). I also gave my contact details to KredEx who is organizing the subsistence program because I knew that any potential Tesla buyer would end up calling them at some point and authorized them to give out my contact details so that not everyone would have to go through all the hoops to get all the information on cables, chargers, subsidy, insurance etc. And over time I've been rewarded with a couple of calls from people planning to order, but shaky yet on details. I've spent many hours talking with people about the car and have at least one partial sale contribution where one of those guys actually placed an order two weeks ago.
I also have to thank him a LOT because he brought me in touch with another Estonian who had in fact ordered two cars in 2012 and I found out he had a minor issue that caused him to have to give up one of the cars (or well he was searching for someone to take over the order). To my great surprise the car he was giving away had almost identical configuration to mine (same color, same interior and trim options and almost all of the same options). The two big question marks were that it didn't have twin chargers and it had 21" rims. However the big big big upside was that the cars were ready in Tilburg
So I contacted a transportation company recommended to me by the first other Estonian who had ordered an MS (he's transported various vehicles with them including expensive cars). The company is this: Stabils tilts starp Rietumiem un Austrumiem - Kurbads. I found it fun that while I was on the phone with them to find out the pricing etc they asked for the car specifications so I sent them the Model S specs page and the first thing I heard when the lady on the other end clicked on the link was Oooh, nice car!
I sure appreciate the company and while indeed it's at times frustrating to not be able to get ahold of anyone, then once you do get ahold of them and find the right person they are super helpful and try to do their absolute best far beyond what you would ask and anticipate and I sure hope I can help them in expansions into this region. The best possible sales platform is being able to see and touch the actual car (I'll need a lot of microfiber cloth etc to wipe all the fingerprints off, also saliva probably, hope no other bodily fluids from gawkers) and hear from an owner the actual experiences. I've been quite public on my FB page (and I do get followed somewhat due to my CERN affiliation etc) and have had tons of people asking questions about the car and purchasing experience and when I gave recently an invited talk on big data the majority of questions at the cocktail bar were not about my talk, but about the car. I was really really surprised to find that even people I didn't know at all knew that I was buying a Model S so I do plan to try to give to as many people as possible test drives and convert many many more people to Tesla belief. We have the perfect environment for this car with the charging infrastructure, the incentives, now we just need people to accept it. Of course initially it'll only be the people who can afford to buy the car outright before they finance it, but I hope Tesla will come to this region and was really surprised how response and constructive Jerome was when I wrote.
Ah, it's been a long post and the car isn't even here yet. I did ask my delivery specialist that if she can go and make a few pictures of the car for me then I at least have something to salivate over, we'll see if she sends me anything soon. I'll keep updating this thread as things develop through the various steps of bureaucracy and the tracking and the final delivery as well as how the first days of driving etc go�
Nov 22, 2013
Gizmotoy That was quite a story. Congrats! Hope you find the Evo a nice home! :wink:�
Nov 22, 2013
Mario Kadastik Sold it on 1st of November (now driving a Mazda 6 loaner from a friend) to a guy who was looking for some winter fun car and has been driving some smaller rally leagues as well as his brother is driving them a bit more. Was a hassle free very efficient transaction with both parties leaving happily.�
Nov 22, 2013
Gizmotoy Nice! A rallying Evo is a happy Evo.�
Nov 22, 2013
JPP Great story! Enjoy! Make your CERN colleagues envious.�
Nov 22, 2013
AudubonB Mario, I'm congratulating you on the imminent arrival of your Model S. You've been a great contributor to the forum and I'm sure others agree you are going to enjoy this vehicle at least as immensely as you think you are.
Also, as you're almost north of the 60th parallel, you get an honorary membership into the Far North Tesla Club!
By the way, at least in the US, normally we say "buying a pig in a poke". But it's clear what you meant....
Tere ja �nnitlused!! (From google translate...�
Nov 22, 2013
Mario Kadastik Haha, will do
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Thanks
Uuu... do I get a badge or smth?
Surprisingly accurate translation by Google, usually it gets Estonian horribly horribly wrong (those translated spam e-mails always make me laugh myself under the table). Well assuming you meant to say Hello and congratulations�
Nov 22, 2013
AudubonB That's what comes up when you type "welcome and congratulations"....
Gotta love that o-with-a-tilde. How do you pronounce it?�
Nov 23, 2013
Gizmotoy I know! "�" :wink:�
Nov 23, 2013
Mario Kadastik How to pronounce in
It's kind of like you'd make the sound of disgust for "ugh" but without the h part in the end. Just listen to the two examples at the above link�
Nov 23, 2013
SwedishAdvocate
At ~4:35 (& 0:59 & 3:32)�
But i really recommend the ~4:35 one. You'll see why :smile:
And if it helps, it kind of sounds like a mix between the Swedish pronunciation for � and �. :wink:
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You beat me to it with 5 min... :smile:�
Nov 23, 2013
Krugerrand Actually, a lot of those letters (as she says the alphabet) sound French.�
Nov 23, 2013
Mario Kadastik Hm, totally different origin. Estonian language comes from Finno-Ugric group and has very few languages left that are from that base: Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian. There is no latin origin to those.�
Nov 23, 2013
Krugerrand That may be so, but the pronunciation for many of the letters is the same as for French. But of course, how many different ways can there be for single letter pronunciation anyway? Interesting.�
Nov 24, 2013
Hasse I hear it as finnish, but a little faster and without the last vowel...�
Nov 25, 2013
Mario Kadastik So had the electrician over today to install the HPWC equivalent
Also received my winter tires (Nokian Hakkapellita 8 studded). Boy they look huge without a car for comparison
Now all I have left to do is wait for the car...�
Nov 25, 2013
Hasse Nice setup, but what does the box actually do? Is it just another set of fuses just for the car? Is it 16 or 32 AMP?�
Nov 25, 2013
Mario Kadastik Well it's supposed to be an EV charging box therefore it negotiates with the car what it can supply and gradually builds it up. Basically it's an EV charging station like you get in malls and parking lots that are more intelligent than just a cable. It allows tuning of ampers 12, 18, 23, 28, 32 amps. The red connector is 3x32A one so that couldn't be used with the UMC, but I could get an adaptor if for what ever reason the charger unit fails. Also in between the two is a standard Schuko 220V 13A connector that is the last resort backup�
Nov 26, 2013
lloyds Man, I just absolutely love these stories. Shows that across ethnicity and region, we all have something in common. Passion for great cars! Thank you sir for sharing.�
Nov 26, 2013
Mario Kadastik And the very last component now is done. Ordered the Mak Bimmer Black wheels (19x8.5 5x120 ET37). With the Nokian's already arrived that completes the winter wheel set. Going to still wait what Tesla decides on the TPMS as a full set costs 484 eur (!!!), but it seems there's some 300 eur voucher for online shop that they give so I'm trying to convince them to discount that from the TPMS and ship them with the car
�
Nov 26, 2013
LuckyLuke Tpms are much cheaper if you search a bit.
Around �40-�60 per piece is possible.
http://www.auto-mecanique.lu/
http://www.tpmsdirect.com/2012_2014_Tesla_Model_S_TPMS_Sensor_p/t147.htm
http://www.rstrading.nl
And some .uk store but cannot find the name now, maybe in another thread.�
Nov 26, 2013
Mario Kadastik Got any clue if they are 100% compatible with the Model S because Tesla were claiming to me in a call that they are MS specific... Would love to hear from someone who actually has third party TPMS installed.�
Nov 26, 2013
NJ Plugin Great post and story Mario. I love reading about the passion others have.
Maybe I missed it, do you have a estimated delivery date or time frame yet?�
Nov 26, 2013
Mario Kadastik The transport company said they'll pick the cars up either this Thursday or Friday from Tilburg. The transit time depends a bit in where in the queue we are with the loading/offloading, but approximately 4-6 days so I'm guessing around Tuesday-Thursday next week is 0-day for me�
Nov 26, 2013
NJ Plugin Very exciting...congrats on you upcoming delivery.�
Nov 26, 2013
Discoducky Have you seen any other electric cars where you'll be driving around? Any Roadsters maybe? And on a scale of 1 to Beiber, how popular will this purchase make you at work and in your neighborhood?�
Nov 26, 2013
Nickjhowe Congrats Mario. Great thread.�
Nov 26, 2013
Mario Kadastik There are a ton of electrics around. The Leaf and MiEV sell quite well because of the incentive program and the government got 100 MiEV's for the social workers who need to drive around constantly, those have been around for almost a year now.
There was one Roadster that I think was owned by the richest person in Estonia Armin Karu if I remember right (he's the owner of the Olympic casino chain), but I didn't find a reference now for it. With regard to popularity, no clue
There definitely is a LOT of interest for this car and I have already lost track of all the test drive requests that I've gotten from friends and colleagues and ex-coworkers and their friends once the car arrives. I'm guessing I'll be spending half the time driving it and half the time doing ads for it to people
I've had a discussion with the people who do the buildout of EV chargers as well as the subsidy and everything related to EVs and they'd be extremely interested in doing a PR event when the car arrives to celebrate the arrival of a real EV sedan for long distance to also Estonia. If the media actually finds this interesting and they cover it I'll link here
Now to sate my appetite and to have something to salivate about I asked Tesla to send me pics of the car as it waits for me in Tilburg, here they are
�
Nov 26, 2013
JakeP Oh my, I think I just salivated a bit for you. Congrats Mario, I appreciate your posts, and love that someone who explores the fine fabric of the Universe will also soon own its finest car!�
Nov 26, 2013
Rla Mario, Congrats!
I read one of your initial posts about how to go about to get your Model S. And it is soo great to see you finally are getting it.
Have fun, and keep posting!�
Nov 26, 2013
mkjayakumar In all of the transit time from Freemont, CA to your hands in Estonia, what is the state of charge ? Is anyone plugging it in between ?�
Nov 26, 2013
Mario Kadastik Well from what I know the car is assembled and tested in Fremont, then the battery and drive unit are removed and shipped separately to Tilburg where the car is re-assembled. I'm assuming Tesla will charge it again in Tilburg during their testing. Right now I could zoom in on the pic of the dashboard and saw that it had 441km of range left
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Thanks, I'm still wondering if I'll hit the 1000 posts before car delivered count as I looked to be on a steady course for that in case of January delivery, but might have to settle for 900 now that it's coming next week�
Nov 27, 2013
Mario Kadastik Yay, all paperwork done I think. Wrote a power of attorney to Tesla so that the transport company can pick it up and signed the contract with the transport company today. Also found out that CoC did change a little with regard to what I had already gotten for my original order (the car is 7kg lighter, the rear axle can take 80kg less weight and different rims) so sent the new one to DMV and got a reply in the night from the boss there that they'll investigate in the morning if I need a new type code or not and if I need one they'll make it in time for my delivery. This is really excellent service they're providing, am thoroughly impressed.
Also found out from my DS that with the car comes �300 voucher to be used in the online store, asked if they could just subtract that from the cost of TPMS set and they agreed so they'll be sending the TPMS with the car�
Nov 27, 2013
JPP Thanks for the updates...and for being brave enough to tackle the challenge of being the first in Estonia.�
Nov 29, 2013
Mario Kadastik Tesla and transport company have both confirmed that the cars were picked up and the transport company confirms delivery on Tuesday !!!�
Nov 29, 2013
CatB Pictures are gorgeous - I can't wait for you to get your hands on it
Thanks for sharing your story too, reminds me of the anticipation I felt when waiting for mine.�
Nov 29, 2013
AudubonB Wow! Now we know: Tuesday 3 December is Thanksgiving Day in Estonia!�
Nov 30, 2013
Mario Kadastik Well had to do a 650km road trip today and that means I had to top up the tank of loan car that I drive until the MS arrives on Tuesday. So the obligatory very last tank of gas picture
�
Dec 2, 2013
Mario Kadastik Just got word, the car arrives tomorrow morning at 10AM
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Oh and I got confirmation. This is the first Model S to be registered in Estonia�
Dec 2, 2013
Mario Kadastik And transport company just sent me a teaser, here are the two cars being reloaded in Riga from Tilburg truck to Tallinn truck
�
Dec 2, 2013
Hasse Great stuff! Since the black one is yours, you will have the first Model S in Estonia. (with red car coming in close in second place)�
Dec 2, 2013
Gwgan Very exciting! Looking forward to views of Estonia from over the dash. Would like to see the cars in a covered wagon or at least car covers for the haul. Be sure to make a close paint inspection.�
Dec 2, 2013
Mario Kadastik Managed to get a whopping 5 hours of sleep, then a cat decided to start puking waking me up and yeah right I'm getting back to sleep. So now going to read all of TMC there is still, then go have breakfast with the other person to take delivery of a Model S today and then off to get the car�
Dec 2, 2013
WarpedOne Today is a great day to be Mario Kadastik! Congrats!
Have you thought about personalized license plates for your Model S?�
Dec 3, 2013
RUHS Color me jealous...�
Dec 3, 2013
Mario Kadastik Gongratulations with your first Model S in Estonia - hope everithing went ok in our ARK (local DMV) with registration!
Have been also looking forward for Model S, now might I could sometimes ask advice about the order arrangements to Estonia.
Raul - from Estonia.�
Dec 3, 2013
Hasse So just a quick post right now as I'm exhausted from todays events (and my phone is charging the second time today already). The day has been a buzz that started off nice and calm, but as I had advertised on Facebook and elsewhere that I'm getting the car today I got some media contacts yesterday asking if they could do an interview and once it went live today my phone's been ringing red! I've given at least 10 different interviews that include most major papers at least one radio station and two TV stations. I'll try to gather the links as they happen, but I've been totally overwhelmed by the medias interest in the car and the high profile coverage it's gotten. People are really interested in the car
So just a few quick pictures before I fall over from exhaustion. And one of the neatest surprises at the end
While swapping tires the owner of my old car showed up for some work
And just now decided on a whim to tweet to Elon about the car and got a reply in 20s
�
Dec 3, 2013
Hybris Wow, nice work. My car's appearance in the local paper seems puny in comparison:
�landstidningen testar unik elbil - landstidningen�
Dec 3, 2013
Blvr888 Lovely!�
Dec 3, 2013
MikeC Mario, you are my hero! To get a Model S to Estonia is an achievement of epic proportion!�
Dec 3, 2013
ev-enthusiast Congrats, Mario. Sounds like you're gonna make Estonia the 3rd biggest market behind the US and Norway!�
Dec 3, 2013
Mario Kadastik Yea, just read your last posts about the delivery, has to be a great day! Congrats to your own Model S�
Dec 3, 2013
JPP 
�
Dec 3, 2013
FluxCap You're hooked up??? Congrats!�
Dec 3, 2013
stevezzzz Congratulations, Mario!!!�
Dec 3, 2013
Mario Kadastik Congratulations, Mario! How appropriate: the transport truck is sporting a revolutionary icon painted on the side of the cab. :wink:�
Dec 3, 2013
ModelX Ok, now a bit more backstory. I got about 5h of sleep (due to cat starting to puke at 6:30AM and no way was I getting more sleep). So I met up with the other cars owner for 8:45AM breakfast where we had a nice long chat about the cars, engineering, science and startups
Seeing it roll in the first time was marvellous and seeing the black brake calipers on a black car I had no doubts that this is precisely what I wanted, not the red ones, but the black ones, they just suit the car. As I had mentioned on Facebook that I'll be getting the car around that time a bunch of my friends showed up at the location as a surprise to see the car. I got it into first time review at the DMV and the whole place was a buzz with everyone checking the car and asking tons and tons of questions. DMV guys were half time doing their duties of checking it and the other half asking questions about the car and taking pictures
Now as I had given an interview about the car to one reporter the night before he launched the story the moment he saw me post the pic of the cars in Tallinn. Just minutes later other newspapers started to pick it up and my phone was constantly ringing. During the time I was showing the DMV guys where the VINs are printed etc I was giving two interviews. Then got a call from one of the major news stations if they could show up within the hour as well and they did. Just as they arrived I got my paperwork that the car had passed inspection and was ready for registering so I did the interview, they asked all the standard questions about range, winter driving and why that car
Once I got the car out of the inspection point and walked into the DMV for registration I got my first breather. Only got one interview call there while waiting in queue and then got the car registered without any issues, took a whole 5-10 minutes. The next immediate surprise was when I went to sign up for insurance and discovered that the offered rates were FAR lower than I had estimated
So I took my numbers and headed over to the tire shop. I was a bit antsy initially about the road, but it was just wet and not iced over so driving calmly I had no issues getting there (managed to accidentally put myself in neutral once and it took a moment to get used to the signal stalk being that low). Once there I found out that they were quite booked for the day even though I had mentioned that I'd be making a showing at a random point. The guys thought a bit and were able to reshuffle a few works to make me a slot with just 30 minutes wait. So we got the car in, I had to read the jacking manual and also put the car in towing mode (to get to neutral, this should really be part of jack mode by default). So we got the car up, removed one of the 21" wheels and ... ran into a hiccup. The wheels I had bought were with proper bolt battern etc, but their bolt holes were narrow enough that the nuts from the 21" didn't fit there :/ So the 21" was reinstalled and I called the wheel provider who organized new nuts that I had to go and pick up (there was some more mess that he'd gotten wrong ones from warehouse so I had to drive over to the warehouse myself, but never mind that). During the whole time I had already given two more interviews, one for a radio station and one for the financial times equivalent locally. So I got back to the tire shop and they AGAIN made room for me (they'd already started compiling the tires on rims) and swapped the wheels out. Phew.
Now a hilarious coincidence happened. While I was getting the wheels swapped my old Evo X came in for maintenance
Son once I had my new winter tires installed I had a whole whopping 20 minutes left to get to city center where another TV crew was waiting to make a short story about the car. They are quite well known and made a nice 8 minute clip about the car asking about all kinds of stuff. With that done they invited me over to their studio and we had a minor chat. You could see the change in attitude once they got to know the car a bit more. Initially most people approached this as a new luxury car or so, but after talking about the car for a while, seeing it inside and out and hearing the comparisons in cost and savings over lifetime of the vehicle you could see that they registered that this is a really viable car. There are so many horror stories here with people trying to use the Leaf in winter to get to a city 120 miles away and back and having to charge 2-3x each way and driving with heating off etc so hearing that the car can do a return trip and still have charge to spare somehow clicks it home that this is a game changer
And I definitely had Tesla moments, was whistling away on the license plate (the Tesla plate holders are about 2 mm too small in both directions) next to the tire shop when various people came by and asked about the car. Not all knew about it, but some did and were asking. Some were skeptical about the car initially, but seeing it up close the main comment usually was that "man this is a pretty car, it really looks like a car so you can't make out that it's electric".
Arriving home the first order of business was validating that the wall charger actually works. So I opened the charge port, connected the cable, heard the locking pin and then happily went to check the screen. Ready to charge. Well ... Check charger power. So I went over all the fuses etc and it looked like the fuses were ok, but the charger didn't have any leds on. Finally thought to check the underside of the charger and found a nice red button there. Pressing it everything lit up and the car started charging. Seems my house's 3x16A can easily spare 3x12A for charging so for now I'm gonna remain on single charger and keep it as it is even though the charger can also do 3x32A but for that I'd need to upgrade my houses main breaker (costs about �2000) and also install twin chargers. Probably not necessary so keeping it as it is.
So now it's time for sleep finally. Was mostly up with waiting for the SpaceX launch (which did take off and is now in parking orbit).
Oddities seen so far:
* initially I couldn't turn off creep. It was grayed out. Finally after a few hours of driving when I checked again it was enabled and I could disable it. No idea at all what caused this.
* Jack mode really should also enable neutral by default and if one wants enable park by hand
* when the charger was disabled, but the locking pin connected I found no way to stop charging and release the locking pin. I didn't check the remote app on phone, but on the display I didn't see it. I tried clicking open charge port, but the locking pin was still there.
* the car has finished charging and has entered sleep. The remote app is unable to wake it :/ I'll have to see if that's the case also tomorrow morning, probably will reserve some time for debugging if needed. Nevermind, trying again the car woke up and connected
Tomorrow I have another TV show coming up at 10 AM where they want me to pit the Model S against a Leaf
I'll gather the bunch of links for the news stories as they come out here as well. Here's the start:
Täna võetakse arvele Eesti esimene Tesla Model S elektriauto - Kahvel
Eestis v�etakse arvele esimene Tesla Model S - Auto/tehnika - E24.ee
Esimene Tesla S j�udis Eestisse
"Tesla oli odavam osta kui Audi A5"
There's even a comment from local car dealers association boss that is in general quite praising for the Model S, surprising
AMTEL: Tesla ei ole massiauto - Äripäev
One of the TV interviews:
Eestis registreeriti esimene n-ö päris elektriauto Tesla S | Elu | Menu | ERR
And the 7 o'clock news:
SEITSMESED UUDISED 2013 | TV3 Play
didn't find a direct link to the episode, if you check at later dates probably have to select todays date somehow
Ok, that's enough for today, now off to sleep�
Dec 3, 2013
crmohler Thanks for sharing! It sounds like an amazing day!�
Dec 3, 2013
gg_got_a_tesla I loved watching the TV interview! Didn't understand a word, but still really cool. Congrats!�
1/1/2015
guest Congrats, Mario! You are quite the rock star in Estonia now, it appears!
Regarding Creep, it's grayed out till you put the car in Park.�
Dec 4, 2013
SwedishAdvocate I�m not 100% sure I understand this, but are you sure the new narrower nuts can handle the torque of the P85? There some discussion here for example (starting at post #7):
Tesla Model S 19 Wheels 1-Piece Forged�
Dec 4, 2013
Mario Kadastik Well the tire shop torqued them to spec of 175 Nm. They're not tiny, they're just a bit slimmer to make it into the hole
A pic from today as well.
�
Dec 4, 2013
JPP Bravo, Mario! Fabulous! Congrats!�
Dec 4, 2013
Raffy.Roma Congratulations Mario!
The wheels are after market? First time that I see them. (Maybe that they are normal 19" Tesla wheels painted in black?)�
Dec 4, 2013
Mario Kadastik They are aftermarket wheels indeed
By today I've started to see first impact of the media coverage. At least one person has ordered the Model S who had only been contemplating it before, but thought it too hard a process so while on FB chat I walked him through it and he's placed the order and paid the deposit now. He's also working on the paperwork already for the subsistence application. In addition to him I have two-three other people who called or wrote on FB chat that they too want to buy the car and how should the proceed, what were the steps and what extra stuff needs to be done. I've given to them the instructions and promised to help if they get stuck at any point.
The next surprising part was that insurance companies started to approach me to see if I'd already insured the car and if they could make a better offer. Who am I to argue in getting better offers
And I do love the car. I've not had the opportunity to really enjoy it yet, driven about 80km so far, but what I have used I've enjoyed�
Dec 4, 2013
SwedishAdvocate Sounds lovely! Very well done! :smile:�
Dec 4, 2013
cwerdna Congrats!
Sorry to go somewhat OT, but is it true that Estonia has over 200 CHAdeMO DC FCs now?�
Dec 5, 2013
Mario Kadastik Yup, that's why I've pre-ordered the CHAdeMO adapter
ELMO - Eesti elektromobiilsuse programm| Charging network
- - - Updated - - -
And just now I got an e-mail from one insurance provider who provides special insurance for deductibles (reducing your cost basis further) where they offered me 1 year of full coverage of deductibles for free�
Dec 5, 2013
cwerdna ^^^
Wow! Thanks. Not quite 200, but that's amazing! Your country is about 1/10th the size of the state of California and only 3% of California's population and yet you have AMAZING DC FC infrastructure.
In my part of the California, it's pretty poor.�
Dec 5, 2013
Mario Kadastik And the video shoot from yesterday has gone live.
Ülevaade: Tesla Model S seest ja väljast | Kahvel�
Dec 5, 2013
Nichen Wow, awesome!! I just have to ask, is finnish difficult for Estonians to understand? I do think the language is a bit simular to finnish and as a scandinavian it would be interesting to know�
Dec 5, 2013
Mario Kadastik Estonian and Finnish come from the same language group so they are very similar. However finns have a tendency to use their own words for everything�
Dec 5, 2013
HVM But it�s not work other way around, difference is more like between English and Dutch, than Danish and Swedish�
And similar words only add confusion: halb = low quality (bad), halpa = low price (cheap).
And now something totally different: Capitalistic propaganda, and a story about it. ;P�
Dec 5, 2013
elecblue Mario - congrats on your delivery! The P85 will always amaze you - the thrill ride never gets old!�
Dec 7, 2013
Mario Kadastik Today I used a different means of transport
�
Dec 7, 2013
GSP Mario,
Thanks for the ELMO link. Estonia's promotion of EVs is outstanding. I think installing the DC fast charge network is a really smart way to enable EV sales. This may produce better and faster results than Norway's incentives, and for less investment. :smile:
I see the ELMO web lite lists one Model S in service. Must be yours!
ELMO - Eesti elektromobiilsuse programm| Quick facts
GSP
PS. Congratulations!�
Dec 19, 2013
Mario Kadastik Alright, I've now driven 800km with the car, am extremely happy with it and today created a Facebook community for Estonian Tesla fans (in the inaugural 24h we've already exceeded 100 members). And today in the morning I got a package from Tesla. In it was a christmas present from Tesla Motors EU
The jacket with red TESLA letters was my wifes size and the fleece was my size�
Dec 19, 2013
J1mbo Nice to get some recognition for your efforts! Maybe you should be on commission�
Dec 20, 2013
VolkerP well deserved!�
Dec 20, 2013
772 A nice gesture indeed. Keep driving the car, it's the best way to get people to understand what it is and that it's a "real" car :smile:�
Dec 29, 2013
Mario Kadastik Well it's now been almost a month and my post count obviously has suffered
First of all I'm totally impressed by the reception of people of the car. The media event on 3rd was huge and there has been continued interest albeit it's been slowing down somewhat. The latest long review and interview was posted only this week. I've also set up a Facebook fan page for Tesla cars in Estonia with the objective of keeping interested parties informed as well as adding new Tesla owners to it as content providers so that they also would share experiences etc. During the first week the page has gone on to have 322 followers and some posts (like the first road trip that I tracked there) have had over 1300 views. So overall the car is of interest to people. I've also been notified of two car forums which had a thread about the Model S (one was on BMW forum and other was on american cars forum) so I registered at both and have provided with more objective feedback about the cars. Even though they are specialized threads with petrolheads and hard core fans the general reception has been positive. Even found one guy on the BMW forum who has ordered the i3 and have been discussing the charging options etc.
There have been a number of Tesla moments for sure
The whole media stuff has also gone over well in the sense that I already know of 7 ordered Model S's and got rumors from Tesla that a signature Model X has been ordered
Now turning to the car itself, then what I really love about the car is the acceleration and don't get me wrong, I do love the feeling when you floor it, but I really mean the whole experience. The non-linear behavior of the accelerator allows one to perfectly control the car in city traffic and the regen on standard setting is perfect for city driving with one pedal. I also love the fact that the acceleration is linear. It doesn't feel as crazy while it is actually very crazy allowing me to enjoy the car far more with less complaints from other passengers
And the frunk is perfect for all the other stuff one needs to carry around:
As already mentioned I've now driven ~1630 km and I have spent ca 400kWh on it that with ~25% charging inefficiency should mean I've taken from the grid ~500kWh of electricity costing me �60 (�0.12 / kWh including all taxes). That's equivalent to 2.9l/100km or 81mpg if one uses the local fuel costs (�1.3 / l). Oh and I've never charged anywhere but home and the one time and my wife's parents place during the road trip
One funny aspect that I'm not sure I've already mentioned is the mandatory insurance which is based on kW of the car. And it seems Tesla uses continuous max power output and rates the P85 at 69kW (I guess that's the heat limit for long term power draw). This means that our DMV put 69kW as the official engine rating for the car in the tech passport and now my mandatory insurance is �6/month�
Dec 29, 2013
AudubonB Hey! Those pups are almost as good-looking as the car! says Mr. Malamute
We experimented with putting Aurora & Borealis in the rear, as in your pic; in the seats; and in the seatback-down full rear. We and they like in the seats best: they are comfortable there and it gives the driver much better rear-view access than when the dogs are blocking most of the back window.
Oh yes: And it lets them blow dog drool all over the back doors and rear quarter panels when we have the windows down.....somehow that never had bothered me in prior vehicles.....�
Dec 29, 2013
Mario Kadastik haha, with them sitting on the rear seats the trouble is that they tend to get curious at times and want to come up front�
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