Africa has been marked as a grey area by Elon Musk’s Telsa and we shall explain why. Jayesh Patel’s dad is the first known owner of this EV car in East and Central Africa. It is not all slaying as the owners were able to give some deep insights on what it takes to be a Model X 75D Tesla owner in Africa.
Tesla America refused, sell this car for Mr. Patel and he had to buy it from the UK who accepted to sell him the EV but with a catch that there will be little or no support.
Charging & Costs
When it comes to charging, they charge it at home using a single phase or 3 phase connection. The owners know of one charging station in the city center but they have never found a use for it. It takes about 12-14 hours through the single-phase connection, and 3-4 hours using the quicker 3 phase connection which they bought separately. A full charge will last about 400km according to the owner but Telsa rates it at 75 kWh (270 MJ) which is 383 km (EPA). From our previous calculations, it will cost about UGX 66,450 to charge this car fully which is a UGX ~25,030 saving when compared to gasoline. The car its self costs about USD 75,000.
ALSO READ: This is the cost of Yaka if you owned an electric Tesla Model X in Uganda
The 3 phase connection is our fastest charging option, taking 3-4 hours from 0-100%. We had to buy 2 wall chargers for this connection, each located in our private convenience spots. The Supercharger option is not available locally, a quick search revealed that it would cost us about $150,000 to have one installed.
Maintenance costs
The Kenyan Tesla owner is so far impressed when it comes to maintenance. Remember, this car has no Engine which means fewer moving parts. He told GTSprint that “We only had to change into a new set of tires and brakes. It’s like a phone, what do you have to service other than charge it on a regular basis?” The only other thing they have to consider as “service”, is the HEPA filtration system – Tesla’s air conditioning system which filters out pollen, bacteria, etc. They have already ordered the filters from the UK.
AutoPilot, Updates, and Navigation
Telsa cars can drive themselves but just as expected, this feature is inactive in our region. “Tesla has switched it off for various reasons,” the owner explained. However, if he was to drive the car in Europe then it would be active. Nonetheless, all other driving assistance and safety features remain active, but given the fact that our roads don’t have clear demarcations– it would prove to be tricky to use.
A Telsa is like your phone, it gets updated over the air so don’t expect. This is also another feature that has been deactivated for this region. There is no manual override either. When it comes to Navigation, the car can use Google Maps but it cannot direct you to a specific, location as this feature was also limited by Tesla. You can however view traffic information.
Day to Day Usage
.The African Telsa owner, says the car is quite huge for their roads and the daily usability may not be as convenient as that of a Model X, S, Y or 3. He also admits that the acceleration is out of this world. The driving assistance and warning systems are more advanced than any German car he has driven before.
If there was one thing Mr. Patel would like Telsa to do if for them to consider adding East Africa to their market list, that way we will benefit from updates like every other Tesla owner. He also said, “In terms of service there is nothing much to ask for, as I mentioned before the service is almost non-existent. You can do it from your home, changing tires and so on.”
