Tesla, a California-based electric car manufacturer owned by entrepreneur Elon Musk, on Monday announced it will make its debut in the Middle East with the opening of a regional office in Dubai. The company has begun accepting online orders from customers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from today, with prices starting from 275,000 dirhams ($74,874) and deliveries due to start this summer, it said in a press statement.
It will also open a Tesla pop-up retail store at The Dubai Mall and a service centre, which is currently under construction along Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Road, will open in July, the statement added. A store and service centre will be opened in Abu Dhabi in 2018, while it has plans to expand to Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia in due course, Musk told reporters during a presentation on the sidelines of the World Government Summit in Dubai. However, he declined to elaborate on his wider plans or timeline for expansion outside the UAE.
Prices start from 275,000 UAE dirhams for Model S, which has a range of 632 km from a single charge and 344,000 UAE dirhams for Model X, which can travel up to 565 km. Customers will be able to charge their vehicles at home or at 26 existing Tesla Destination charging stations around the UAE, such as hotels and malls, with plans to increase this to 50 by the end of the year.
The company also announced it has opened two Supercharging stations in Jebel Ali in Dubai and Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, which can rapidly charge vehicles in minutes rather than hours, and is planning to open five more by the end of 2017.
Earlier in the day, Musk met with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, where the Dubai ruler welcomed the launch of Tesla’s regional office in the emirate and “directed the concerned authorities in Dubai to facilitate the company’s work and furnish them with the services and logistic support required,” the WAM news agency reported.
