Tesla's Japanese Customers Paying $194,000 - U.S. - for Special Roadsters
By John O'Dell April 21, 2010EVs Bound for Tokyo Are Option-Packed; Tesla Says It Sees Huge Demand in Japan
Tesla Roadster Sport models due to be shipped to the company's first Japanese buyers rest on dock at Port Hueneme, north of Los Angeles. Rough weather prevented cargo ship from entering loading area.
Tesla Motors was supposed to ship a dozen specially equipped, modified and badged Roadster Sport electric cars to its first Japanese customers today, but high winds kept the cargo ship at sea until Thursday at least, so the mostly Tokyo-based high-rollers will have to wait.
We say high rollers because, with the Japanese edition priced at 18.1 million yen - equivalent of $194,560 at today's exchange rate - they've got to be pretty high up in the island nation's economic food chain.
Tesla's made a big deal of the shipment, the first ever to Japan of a modern American automaker's electric vehicles, and if reports from company executives are accurate, it is worth bragging about.
The Northern California-based EV maker opened sales to Japan via the Internet just a few weeks ago and says it already has received solid orders for 20 of the cars.
"The response was impressive because it was so quick," said Franz von Holzenhausen, Tesla's senior designer. "There's tremendous demand over there."
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Reporters and camera operators for Japanese-language media crowd around one of the Roadster Sport models at Port Hueneme. "Many of them haven't seen one before," said a Tesla spokeswoman.
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He said Tesla has representatives in Tokyo searching for a site for a future Japanese sales office but for now will continue marketing in that country via the Tesla Web site and word-of-mouth.
He claimed, by the way, not to know whether any of the first Teslas ordered by Japanese clients were being sold to executives at any of the Japanese automakers.
"I wish I did know," the designer said with a grin. "That'd be something we could really brag about."
(Except, we'd bet, that the purchase contracts probably would have non-disclosure clauses so no one at any of the major Japanese car companies would have to admit a hankering for a pricey American EV.)
Von Holzenhausen defended the pricing for the Japanese model, citing the costs of shipping, making necessary safety systems changes and including as standard items for which customers in the U.S. pay extra (the Japanese model pricing also includes the otherwise optional 3-year entended warranty and a mobile 240-volt fast-charging cord and connector).
He also noted that Tesla will stop making the Roadster in a few years "so these cars will be collelctors items, and that's not a lot to pay for a car that will someday be in museums and important private collections."
For their 18.1 million yen, the Japanese buyers will be getting specially prepared Tesla Roadster Sport models, homologated for the Japanese market (special lights, side markers and safety equipment required by Japanese law) and bearing special badging and just about every option Tesla makes available, including lots of carbon-fiber trim and, in a few cases, custom paint colors.
The only major change to the bodywork, however, is a special rear fascia moulded to accomodate the larger license plates used there and in most of Europe.
Tesla initially planned to send its recently-developed right-hand drive models to Tokyo as the Japanese, like the British, drive on the "other" side of the road, but spokeswoman Khobi Brooklyn said the customers unanimously asked for American-style left-hand drive cars.
"There's a special cachet over there to left-hand drive," she said.
Because choppy seas canceled Tesla's plans to load the firsrt dozen cars on a cargo ship today, as had been planned, Edmunds senior photographer Scott Jacobs had to make do with a lineup of cars parked on the blacktop next to the empty berth - and did his usual stellar job of capturing the moment.
John O'Dell, Senior Editor
Photos by Scott Jacobs, for Edmunds Green Car Advisor
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