Tesla Motors has announced the UK pricing for its Model S electric sedan.
The Tesla Model S with the 60 kW battery pack will start at £49,900, after the government’s £5000 car grant has been deducted.
The Tesla Model S with 85kW battery pack will cost from £57,300 and the 85kWh Performance model will cost from £68,700.
The announcement came as Tesla Motors opened its first UK retail design store in the UK at London’s Westfield Shopping Centre in White City.
The opening was marked by Tesla Motors’ Co-Founder and CEO Elon Musk, who hosted a special opening evening for UK customers. Elon Musk confirmed the first UK Supercharger charging site will be established in “the next quarter” with a nationwide network established by the end of 2014.
“Tesla is taking the UK market very seriously, and there are more stores and service centres to come. We’re also going to establish a Supercharger network so Model S customers will be able to drive long distances anywhere in the UK using our network for free, forever. The first Supercharger will be energised next quarter and we’ll aspire to have the entire country covered by end of next year. Most importantly, we are hard at work with Right Hand Drive Model S, and we aim to deliver the first one by the end of March 2014.”
Aside from the competitive starting price of Model S within the luxury saloon segment, there are numerous financial benefits applied to Model S as an electric vehicle that should be considered that affect the “total cost of ownership”, making Model S even more compelling in the UK. These include incentives such as zero showroom tax, zero Vehicle Exercise Duty (road tax) and exemption from London’s Congestion Charge.
Model S owners can also look to save thousands of pounds in fuel cost over the life of their car with there being no more expensive trips to the petrol station; instead Model S can simply be plugged in and charged from any electrical outlet.
UK residents who purchase Model S as a company car can also benefit from a 0% Benefit-In-Kind (BIK) rate until April 2015, after which the BIK is set to a rate of 5%. Compared to the standard BIK rates of 24-28% for a typical premium ICE saloon, this incentive helps make Model S even more attractive to corporate clients.[wzslider height=”400″ lightbox=”true”]
