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.
