First customer UK Tesla Model S EV will be delivered March 2014

First customer UK Tesla Model S (pictured) will be delivered in March 2014

The Tesla Model EV may have been astonishing buyers and car journalists alike in the US for some time – and even Europe is starting to get the first taste of the Model S – but the UK and its RHD needs are lagging a bit behind. But last night there was good new for UK Tesla buyers as Elon Musk announced the first Model S to be delivered in the UK will be in March 2014. Musk also said the first owner was ‘high profile’, but declined to elaborate.

Musk’s announcement came at the opening of the new Tesla Shop in the Westfields Shopping Centre in West London, a replacement for the first UK Tesla Showroom which opened four year ago and then quietly closed when Tesla ran out of Roadsters to sell.

The new Tesla Store is more like an Apple Store than a conventional showroom, no surprise when you realise that Tesla’s VP in charge of Sales is George Blankenship, the man who used to work for Apple and was instrumental in designing Apple’s bright shops.

Other news from the opening included a Supercharger Network for the UK, with the first Supercharger recharging point opening in the next few months and a complete network of Supercharger stations covering the UK by the end of 2014.

Also confirmed was the arrival of the Model X Crossover SUV, which will be followed – but probably not until 2017 – by a smaller Tesla saloon (perhaps the Tesla Model E?) to start picking up sales from cars like the LEAF.

Tesla are still on a roll.

By Cars UK