Importing a 2nd-hand CPO (Certified Pre-Owned) Tesla from the UK

umbauk

I recently bought a Certified Pre-owned (CPO) 2014 Tesla Model S from Tesla in the UK and registered it in Ireland. I thought I’d write a post on the process to help others considering doing this in the future.

I decided to buy a 2nd-hand Tesla from Tesla rather than privately/through a dealer, despite it usually being more expensive, because 1) Tesla spend a lot of time refurbishing the 2nd-hand cars to make them virtually like new (checklist here) and 2) it comes with a 4-year / 50k mile warranty and Tesla Dublin will service it under the warranty.

Finding a car: CPO Tesla Model S are approaching £40k (€45k) in the UK so are becoming more affordable. You can see the available inventory on Tesla’s UK website here (if it redirects you to the Irish site click the Irish flag at the bottom of the page and change it to UK then select “Used Inventory”), however I found ev-cpo.com more useful. It allows you to select specific features you want (e.g. Autopilot, rear-facing seats etc) and tells you all the options that come with the car in detail - which is often difficult to understand on the Tesla website. If you subscribe ($8 per month) you can also set up email alerts when new inventory comes in matching your criteria or when prices drop.

Buying it: Once I found the car I wanted I clicked “Request a callback” on Tesla’s site to ask some questions and when I was happy they took the deposit from me over the phone by debit/credit card. Deposit is usually £4,000, but I had a Model 3 reservation which I used towards my deposit. Note: they won’t budge on price so no point asking. The car will be ready c.4 weeks after putting down the deposit. For some reason they don’t start work on the car until a deposit is paid, which takes a while.

Location: The car I was buying happened to be based in Manchester (which is where it was traded-in), which I think is the best location given it’s c.2 hours drive from the Holyhead ferry. However, during the call they asked where I would like to collect the car from so assume you could collect from any Tesla UK store. They could not deliver to Dublin. You later receive an email with some details and ask you for photos of proof of address, driving licence etc.

Trade-in: I contacted Tesla in Dublin who sent details and photos of my current car to a bunch of trade dealers and forwarded on the best price to me. I could probably have got a little more (5-10%) by selling privately. I didn’t get the trade-in amount taken off my purchase price (I traded-in the car a week after delivery of my Model S) but maybe you can do this if you push for it.

Charger install: I went with the Tesla wall charger (€530) which I collected from Tesla Dublin (note: best to call them first to check they are in stock and arrange collection or delivery) and got quotes from the 2 installers Tesla recommend. They were more expensive than an independent electrician, but were very knowledgeable and provided a warranty.

Insurance: I had some trouble getting insurance quotes despite having 11 years no-claims, no penalty points and 19 years driving experience. My existing insurer (123.ie) and others wouldn’t give me a quote, many websites don’t list Tesla as an option to get a quote and Allianz wouldn’t insure the car until it was on Irish plates. The quotes I was getting (AA and AXA) were €600-€900 more than my current policy (2013 VW Tiguan). I ended up going with AXA who had no problem insuring the car on UK plates for 30 days until I registered it in Ireland.

Paying: Tesla give you UK bank details to transfer payment to and ask you to have transferred everything 3 working days before collection. I used CurrencyFair.com to convert Euros into GBP, which I found gave the best currency rates (I saved over €1,000 vs using Ulster Bank to transfer!) and was very easy to set up an account. Also you can save a bit extra if you buy GBP in the marketplace on the site rather than doing an auto-transaction. Note: some banks limit you to €25,000 transfer per day and it takes a day or so to appear in your CurrencyFair account - so worth planning ahead.

V5 logbook: A delivery specialist called me a couple of weeks before collection to confirm the appointment and answer any questions. Originally they asked for a UK address to register the car to and where the V5 logbook would be sent, but I raised that I needed to take the whole V5 registration document with me when I collect the car (this is required to register the car in Ireland) and referenced the DVLA’s (UK car agency) guidance that when selling to a foreign buyer they should notify the DVLA of export and give the buyer the whole V5 document. He initially pushed back, but then said he would check and called me back later that day to say he had confirmed I was right and would be able to take the whole V5 with me on collection day.

Collection: I flew to Manchester airport and got a taxi to the Tesla store (20mins - £20). They did a fun “reveal”, spent around 90mins walking me through all the features, I signed a couple bits of paper and then they handed me the full V5 (minus the “Export slip” which they send to the DVLA) and the keys! They charged the car to 100% in advance so the 200km (2 hour) drive to Holyhead (largely on Autopilot with a big smile on my face left me with 150km range - more than enough to get me the 12km from Dublin port to my house.

VRT: Once my delivery date was confirmed I booked an appointment online in my nearest NCT centre in Tallaght for the following week on a Saturday. You have to bring: photo ID, the V5, the Tesla invoice, Ferry ticket, proof of address, PPS no. proof (e.g. P60) and the 2 VRT forms. Also make sure you know how to bring up the mileage for them to check (press the Tesla logo at the top of the screen). The check is quick, but since the Model S is not in the Revenue database they couldn’t give me a VRT cost on the day. Got an email to call them 3 days later. Revenue valued the car at very close to what I paid for it. Total VRT bill was €3,190 on a £49,700 car.

Car bought: 2014 Model S 85, Autopilot v1, Rear-facing seats, Panoramic roof, High Fidelity sound, Winter package, Smart air suspension, 28k miles.

Total cost:
Car: £49,700 / €56,500
VRT: €3,190
Road tax: €120
Plane, Ferry, taxis: €400 (Tip: use Tesco clubcard vouchers with Irish Ferries which give 4x the value off Irish Ferries tickets)
Home charger install: €300 (after €600 government rebate)
Increase in car insurance: €600 (from a 2013 family crossover)
Total cost: €61,000 (the closest model new in Ireland is €117k!)
If you pick a Tesla closer to £40k you could reduce this to c.€50,000

Referral code: if you find this useful, but end up buying a new Tesla, feel free to use my referral code: darren2182 for free unlimited super-charging (and to earn me some Tesla goodies

Overall the whole importing experience was pretty straight-forward and am incredibly happy with the car.

Shefwedfan

Excellent information. Very interesting that Tesla Dublin helped to sell your own car. That is excellent service.

That would be one of the issues I would have automatically ruled out Tesla was trying to sell my own car.

Orebro

Excellent write up thats sure to help lots of us.

I'm doing some savage man maths here :-)

unkel

We're only in January and we already have the EV forum post of the year 2018

The VRT is a big relief, I bet you reckoned it would be more! Did they give you any notion of how they arrived at the Irish OMSP (given the options of the car, the fact that it is CPO, etc.?)

A few more questions if you don't mind sharing. The rear facing seats mean the 7 seat option, right? The car looks mint. With the AP and the air suspension, all 3 would be very desirable options for me (I couldn't care about any other options). The car looks mint. I reckon you got a pretty sweet deal for a CPO with those options.

The home charger install was €300 after subsidy. That means the install was €300 + €600 = €900, the charger itself was €530 so the installer got €370? What kind of install was it, just on the outside wall of your hall (where on the inside you have your consumer electricity unit)? Did you get quotes from any non-Tesla recommended installers (electricians) or even Nigel Daly (installer of all / most of the free ESB home chargers)?

Springwell

Very informative.

One point - Liberty definitely do insure EVs as they have my Zoe on cover!

goz83

Springwell wrote: »

Very informative.

One point - Liberty definitely do insure EVs as they have my Zoe on cover!

+1. I was with Liberty when I got the Leaf. Moved to Zurich for renewal.

ELM327

I also was insured on my leaf with Liberty.

ted1

That sounds like a crazy install price. Effectively all the electrician is doing is running a cable from a fuse box. Any terminating into a control box. Less than a half days work and nothing special about it.

Denisoftus

goz83 wrote: »

+1. I was with Liberty when I got the Leaf. Moved to Zurich for renewal.

Depends on a car, Liberty, and, in fairness most of the others, consider Tesla a performance car (which is, in a way), therefore unsafe/high risk (which is definitely not) and refuse to insure it. Perhaps if value <50K (as of being pre-owned) they might consider; try to insure Model X valued 110K+ and they will show you a door

flc37ie6ojwkh8

I had the chance to try one Tesla in the US and man, if I would have the money, I would like to enjoy it here, even if the roads are not the best.

Denisoftus

ted1 wrote: »

That sounds like a crazy install price. Effectively all the electrician is doing is running a cable from a fuse box. Any terminating into a control box. Less than a half days work and nothing special about it.

When were electricians given cheap quotes? Any jobs, electricians done for us in the past, were extremely expensive, why this would be an exception. One can of course go with some handy man pretended to be an electrician, but would you risk it?

Also there are so many factors which can affect your quote, is a power cable from fuse board good enough or they need to run a new cable, is ESB fuse good enough, will you have enough power (if you have electric showers), etc, etc. The basic cost, if nothing extra needs to be done, is around €600 for recommended installers, and it can go up to thousands if you unlucky.

Anyway, if someone willing to pay 60K for a car, would one bother with €600,considering huge savings on VRT.

I imported Lexus, which cost £22K, and paid two times VRT, considering VRT/tax/petrol savings you can allow for installation, IMHO.

Denisoftus

Aubrielle Shrilling Underbelly wrote: »

I had the chance to try one Tesla in the US and man, if I would have the money, I would like to enjoy it here, even if the roads are not the best.

I must disagree, roads in US are much worse, it maybe depends on a state, in MA definitely are.

ted1

Denisoftus wrote: »

ted1 wrote: »

That sounds like a crazy install price. Effectively all the electrician is doing is running a cable from a fuse box. Any terminating into a control box. Less than a half days work and nothing special about it.

When were electricians given cheap quotes? Any jobs, electricians done for us in the past, were extremely expensive, why this would be an exception. One can of course go with some handy man pretended to be an electrician, but would you risk it?

Also there are so many factors which can affect your quote, is a power cable from fuse board good enough or they need to run a new cable, is ESB fuse good enough, will you have enough power (if you have electric showers), etc, etc. The basic cost, if nothing extra needs to be done, is around €600 for recommended installers, and it can go up to thousands if you unlucky.

Anyway, if someone willing to pay 60K for a car, would one bother with €600,considering huge savings on VRT.

I imported Lexus, which cost £22K, and paid two times VRT, considering VRT/tax/petrol savings you can allow for installation, IMHO.

Thats just nonsense. Sparks will charge about 100 Euro including call out to fit an outdoor socket , there is not much difference between the two other than cable size.
SWA isn’t to expensive nor is a MCB.

I’m not sure where you are getting your electricians from. But if you think they are crazy expensive they must see you coming.

Also a handy man can’t legally work on electricity and certinsky can’t issue a cert once the job is done

Denisoftus

umbauk wrote: »

I recently bought a Certified Pre-owned (CPO) 2014 Tesla Model S from Tesla in the UK and registered it in Ireland.
Referral code: if you find this useful, but end up buying a new Tesla, feel free to use my referral code: darren2182 for free unlimited super-charging (and to earn me some Tesla goodies

This CPO deal is absolutely mind blowing, none of other car makers do this, at least, I've never heard of.

I can't believe, they even gave you a referral code, offer trade-in, etc. You got super-charging for life, I suppose, you used someone else code, right?

Buying pre-owned Tesla from private/trade dealers wouldn't give you any of this. It damn wroth any extra penny paid.

Thanks for sharing this man!

Denisoftus

ted1 wrote: »

Thats just nonsense. Sparks will charge about 100 Euro including call out to fit an outdoor socket , there is not much difference between the two other than cable size.
SWA isn’t to expensive nor is a MCB.

Its not just an outdoor socket, but I agree with you, the price is high. €100 for external socket, I would consider this expensive too, if you ask me, really it is 10 mins job. I have done one recently (double socket fed of internal socket, no drilling or messing required, socket was provided) with some electrician, cost me 130 + VAT, for literally 15 mins work. So proportionally installing Tesla charger will be around €500 for a half day job. And, mind you, installers recommend by Tesla are more expensive than just your fellow electrician, as mentioned in other threads.

ted1

What benefits is there in using a recommended installer? Any sparks can certify the work and it’ll still have a warranty

Denisoftus

ted1 wrote: »

What benefits is there in using a recommended installer? Any sparks can certify the work and it’ll still have a warranty

Dunno, maybe we should ask people already had this installed.

umbauk

Springwell wrote: »

Very informative.

One point - Liberty definitely do insure EVs as they have my Zoe on cover!

Thanks. That's what the Liberty rep. told me but have edited post to reflect that.

umbauk

unkel wrote: »

We're only in January and we already have the EV forum post of the year 2018

The VRT is a big relief, I bet you reckoned it would be more! Did they give you any notion of how they arrived at the Irish OMSP (given the options of the car, the fact that it is CPO, etc.?)

A few more questions if you don't mind sharing. The rear facing seats mean the 7 seat option, right? The car looks mint. With the AP and the air suspension, all 3 would be very desirable options for me (I couldn't care about any other options). The car looks mint. I reckon you got a pretty sweet deal for a CPO with those options.

The home charger install was €300 after subsidy. That means the install was €300 + €600 = €900, the charger itself was €530 so the installer got €370? What kind of install was it, just on the outside wall of your hall (where on the inside you have your consumer electricity unit)? Did you get quotes from any non-Tesla recommended installers (electricians) or even Nigel Daly (installer of all / most of the free ESB home chargers)?

Thank you!

I was expecting up to €5k for VRT so it was a nice surprise! They definitely didn't consider options on car as the inspection and form just checked the VIN, reg, no. of windows (randomly), mileage etc so I imagine all 2014 Model S 85 at that mileage would be valued the same.

Yes the rear-facing seats means it can be a 7-seater, although the 2 rear-facing seats are for roughly 3-10 year olds only. The seats fold down when not in use so you can get full use of the boot. When they are up we have the ample frunk for scooters, rucksacks etc.

Car was in mint condition. A few minor scuffs internally on the metal foot plates and some plastic, but otherwise flawless. I haven't found a need to use the adjustable air suspension much. I raised the car when getting on/off the ferry and a couple of times when I've had to mount a curb - out of caution, but speed bumps are fine with the standard height. It is cool to feel the car going up and down though AP and rear-facing seats were the options I was looking for, it just happened I found one that had all the other bells and whistles too for a good price.

Yes, install was around €400 and it was a drill through one wall and a few metres of cabling. Very tidy. Took around 4 hours. Got a quote from Nigel Daly who tried to sell me a Rolec (which costs more than a Tesla WC). Gave me a €100 cheaper install cost, but said there wouldn't be any warranty if he installed the Tesla unit.

ELM327

Denisoftus wrote: »

This CPO deal is absolutely mind blowing, none of other car makers do this, at least, I've never heard of.

I can't believe, they even gave you a referral code, offer trade-in, etc. You got super-charging for life, I suppose, you used someone else code, right?

Buying pre-owned Tesla from private/trade dealers wouldn't give you any of this. It damn wroth any extra penny paid.

Thanks for sharing this man!

If you buy a 2014 model S 85 you have supercharging for life. Regardless of purchase place.
It comes with the car. They only changed the terms from 2016 onwards that the supercharging changed to ownership.

Denisoftus

umbauk wrote: »

Yes, install was around €400

€400 before grant? So it was free after grant, right?

zilog_jones

umbauk wrote: »

Insurance: I had some trouble getting insurance quotes despite having 11 years no-claims, no penalty points and 19 years driving experience. My existing insurer (123.ie) and others wouldn’t give me a quote, many websites don’t list Tesla as an option to get a quote and Allianz wouldn’t insure the car until it was on Irish plates. The quotes I was getting (AA and AXA) were €600-€900 more than my current policy (2013 VW Tiguan). I ended up going with AXA who had no problem insuring the car on UK plates for 30 days until I registered it in Ireland.

Whenever I changed cars previously, I just called my current insurer on the day saying what I'm changing to and what time, and had no trouble (even getting temporary cover on UK plates) - is there a chance they can refuse me in this situation? Of course I can see why they may treat a Tesla as relatively exotic or "high performance".

goz83

zilog_jones wrote: »

Whenever I changed cars previously, I just called my current insurer on the day saying what I'm changing to and what time, and had no trouble (even getting temporary cover on UK plates) - is there a chance they can refuse me in this situation? Of course I can see why they may treat a Tesla as relatively exotic or "high performance".

Liberty transferred my policy to UK plates no problem for 30 days.

Zurich apparently won't transfer insurance to UK plates. I don't know about the rest.

Giotto

Umbauk,
Thanks for a fantastic post and well wear with the car. I have just ordered an 85D on the UK CPO site. You have really made this a painless process for those of us coming after you. Much appreciated.

Denisoftus

goz83 wrote: »

Zurich apparently won't transfer insurance to UK plates. I don't know about the rest.

I'm with Zurich and they had no problem transferring insurance to UK plate, even on Saturday, outside of normal office hours last September.

Denisoftus

Giotto wrote: »

Umbauk,
Thanks for a fantastic post and well wear with the car. I have just ordered an 85D on the UK CPO site. You have really made this a painless process for those of us coming after you. Much appreciated.

I can see there are a lot of 85Ds on UK CPO, was it a standard for UK?

Giotto

Yes it is a standard 85D and not a P85D. Fairly significant price jump to the P85D.
I did a fair bit of research and the 85D ticks all the boxes for me.

goz83

Denisoftus wrote: »

I'm with Zurich and they had no problem transferring insurance to UK plate, even on Saturday, outside of normal office hours last September.

I rang them last Friday to temporarily transfer to the Leaf I was bringing home. Agent said they don't transfer to UK plates. Of course, it was probably the usual horse sh1te from insurers where if I called again, I might have had better luck. I just used my driving other cars extension instead.

umbauk

Congrats Giotto! That's great news. Can't wait to hear how you get on. Let us know when you get a delivery date.

Giotto

I have just imported a 2015 Tesla Model S from Tesla in the UK. This was made so much easier by the extremely helpful post from Umbauk at the begiining of this thread.

Ordering – I ordered online from the Tesla UK website in January. There was a decent range to choose from at that stage. They sell like hot cakes so don’t hang about if you see one you like. I bought an 85D with 30,000 miles. Cost stg£53,900.

Waiting Period – I was waiting 5 weeks before the car was available for collection. I must say that the Tesla staff were very attentive and answered all my queries promptly.

Payment – Use Currency Fair to transfer sterling to Tesla UK. Saved at least €1,000 compared to normal banking exchange rates.

Home charger – Tesla will sell you a home charger for €530.

eCar charging point access card – I applied for this on the ecarNI website. They don’t require you to be the registered owner when you apply.

Insurance – This was probably the biggest hassle. I bought the car through my company. It was very difficult to get a quote and I was going to lose my no claims bonus. I then went to OMI brokers in Cork and Kiki there did a fantastic job getting me a very competitive quote – I would recommend them.

Collection – The car I ordered was in Tesla’s depot near Heathrow and I collected from there on a Saturday morning having got an early flight. It was a memorable experience. They do a brilliant job detailing the car. It was in pristine condition. If I had my time over, I would have looked to collect the car from Tesla Manchester – just to shorten the trip to Holyhead.

VRT – You have to contact NCTS within 7 days of landing the car and make an appointment to have the car assessed for VRT. They can’t give you the tax there and then because Teslas are not on the Revenue VRT Calculator. Revenue will contact you after a few days and give you the assessment. In my case it was €5,346 which was about right I thought. Tip – they will insist on seeing the engraved VIN on the car – we eventually found it in the driver’s door under the sill!

Car bought – 2015 Model S 85D, Autopilot v1, panoramic roof, carbon fibre décor, air suspension, premium interior, 21” wheels

Impressions – A brilliant car. If you haven’t driven one go for a test drive. Without doubt the future of motoring. Incredibly smooth and powerful. Also a huge wide car. I am still getting used to it and there are some narrow lanes and sidestreets that I will avoid. All in all I am very very pleased. All I need now is for Tesla to build some superchargers near Cork and for the government to keep its word about no benefit in kind on company EVs for at least three years!

[Deleted User]

Excellent, well wear !