Tesla Arrives in Ireland
Electric cars have not really taken off in Ireland yet, with only about 400 registered last year. Until now the Nissan Leaf has been the main contender, and each day I am seeing more and more on the roads of Dublin.
Tesla
A visit to a showroom in San Jose California a few years ago left me in no doubt about the future of the automobile. Like Steemit, once you see what it has to offer, it's a no brainer. Well there is one catch with the Tesla, the price tag. That is until the announcement of the Model 3.
Road to The Model 3
At the presentation of the Model 3 Elon Musk outlined his original vision for the company, which is Genius.
- Start with a super high end car (The Roadster) which would lead to the next stage of development
- a high end almost mass market car (The Model S, and Model X)
These test beds would not only let him develop the missing ingredients for mass market adoption, such as the Giga Factory to manufacture the batteries for his cars, but also the network of superchargers. At some stage in the future these will be a goldmine for Tesla, when other electric manufactures will need to pay them to get access.
This guy is a genius and we have not even seen his grand vision for the automobile materialise yet, The Model 3.
Over the last few years, he has putting all of his pieces in place and the time is near for his endgame, the arrival of The Model 3.
Ireland
I have been eagerly waiting for the arrival of Tesla and a few months ago they announced that they would be opening a showroom in Ireland in 2017. With little fanfare a few weeks ago they opened in Sandyford, Dublin and I didn't even hear about it until a friend at work mentioned it to me last Monday. The Tesla mug on my desk is a giveaway.
Lets Check it out
After spending the day writing posts for Steemit, I headed off to check out the showroom. Very excited that I will now be able to book in for a test drive of the Model S. It's way out of my league but it will be fun :)
A bit disappointed with the showroom. It's at the end of an industrial estate, there is a lot of building work going on all around. Its not much to look at. I was expecting a big shiny building with lots of Teslas in the parking lot.
The Penny Drops
Ok I thought the Model 3 was genius but the location of the Tesla showroom in Dublin just as good.
Guess what's right across the road?
You got it, the Audi center. As people come to get thier Audi's serviced, what will they see across the road? :)
For further reading on Tesla in Ireland check out the following articles from Siliconrepublic.com
- https://www.siliconrepublic.com/gear/tesla-irish-store-superchargers-price
- https://www.siliconrepublic.com/gear/tesla-irish-store-superchargers-price
Thank you for reading this. I write on Steemit about Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Travel and lots of random topics.
I saw it too and was also disappointed!
Very nice! It has been possible to buy a Tesla in Ireland for a while though, I see one every now and then on my way into work in Dublin 2. I've also gone through the online process of ordering one, without making the final step :-P
It's out of my league too but I'm hoping that won't be true in 2 years or so.
The great thing about a showroom in Dublin is I can get a test drive :)
I never can distinguish cars, to me they are all the same :D
This one is different. It drives itself, watch the following video but make sure to make it to the end to see what happens when the guy gets to work. How cool is that!!
I see this one is really different, quite a driver
He can drive with his eyes closed :)
I wonder if there is a map anywhere of the charging points in Ireland for electric cars? I have only seen them in a couple of places in Galway so far...
The esb website has one, there are quite a few around the country. A lot were put in a few years ago, but what will be a challenge for the government and ESB will be to maintain them going forward. It may not be as big an issue for Tesla as the range is so far on them.
https://www.esb.ie/our-businesses/ecars/charge-point-map