Several people have asked me about the process of buying and registering a Tesla as there is as yet no store or official entity in Spain.
It was not a complex process in all honesty and if anyone needs help Drive & Dream is here to give a hand of course.
Here is the process…
1) Send an email or fill in the web form on teslamotors.com and they will call you to help you make the purchase. They speak many languages so don’t worry about that. Just as a guide, in my case we did this step more than 18 months before getting the car, but now at the end of 2013 I think there is around a 6 month wait list.
2) Pay the deposit and wait. You can back out of this at anytime without losing this deposit.
3) They will contact you through email or phone when it is time to specify the configuration and sign the contract. In my case this took a year to happen but I’m sure its only 2 or 3 months now. If anyone has up-to-date experience of this please share it in the comments.
4) They will contact you when they are about to build the car. At this stage you have to pay the full cost remaining (but not the sales tax or registration fees) via bank transfer. Again, in my case 3 or 4 months passed between step 3) and 4) but I’m sure now its just days or a few weeks.
5) A delivery specialist will advise you when the car is ready for delivery. At this stage you can choose to pay to have it brought on a truck but the most fun thing is to drive it down yourself of course (check out our trip at the start of September 2013). Once again, in my case something like 3 months went by between steps 4) and 5) but now it is probably only a couple of months. They have to build the car and ship it over to the Holland from California.
6) If you pick it up they give you a temporary German plate and insurance that will last about 2 weeks. Tesla will tell you how much this is but it wasn’t much.
7) You can drive the car until the plate expires. If it is brought on a truck I imagine you cannot do this which may complicate the next step…
8) You have to take the car to the Technical Inspection (ITV) with all the papers. They should charge about €200. If the car came on a truck it should probably go straight to the inspection centre, and then afterwards, to a safe storage location or private garage.
9) In 3 or 4 days they will give you the inspection papers. You should take all these to a «Gestoría» (administration service). I recommend Pradilla (Madrid) as they know the process for EVs perfectly. This also costs about €200 in addition to the local council road tax (should be minimal for EVs). This proces should only take a week or two but it took a lot longer for us as we were the first.
10) The sales tax (IVA) gets paid at this point. They will advise you what you have to do.
11) They will provide you with the number plates and documentation to allow you to drive the car. You can now organize the insurance. I use Reale as their web had Tesla as a brand and Model S P85 as a model… amazing!
One point that has not been clarified is the state subsidy for purchasing a Tesla EV. I hope to understand this better soon.
In summary, it is a straight-forward enough process, and if you want help just ask us – mark@driveandream.com