Wealthy Russians are clamoring for Teslas that aren’t even available in their country, Bloomberg News is reporting.
Buyers are paying up to double for the electric vehicles, the story reports, which include freight and import fees of more than $60,000 for the cars.
“It doesn’t pollute nature and it’s super cheap and easy to use,” Herman Gref told Bloomberg News in an e-mail.
Super cheap is relative term — even in Russian we hope.
The “iPhone on wheels,” according to one Russian buyer, has a small but devoted following, apparently.
There are only 300 registered electric cars in Russia, not including Teslas, for more than 144 million people. By contrast, there are 1,200 registered electric cars in Estonia, with a population 100 times smaller than Russia’s. So far, more than 35,000 battery-powered electric vehicles (excluding Volt) have been purchased in the U.S. this year.
According to the story, Tesla has no future plans to enter the Russian market — which is the world’s second-largest producer of oil. Electric cars in Russia are exceptionally expensive, infrastructure is severely lacking and the Russian government doesn’t offer any incentives to make the switch to electric cars.
But Russian automaker (with an unfortunate name) Revolta Motors say they’ll introduce a Chinese-built electric car in Russia this year.
“Wealthy Russians are clamoring for Teslas that aren’t even available in their country”
Wealthy people around the world clamor for products that aren’t available in their home countries, including cars, cigars, and brides of various ethnicities.
It’s interesting to know that conspicuous consumption knows no borders or boundaries. Thorstein Veblen called it long ago.
Will the wifi updates reach an owner there or will they be blocked as western propaganda?
How are they getting Teslas past the current trade sanctions – third country intermediary?
As my Polish grandmother would have said ” FU Putin”
Wealthy Russian’s are some of the craziest people you’ll meet. Wealthy westerners seems to pull off the whole wealthy thing with more subtlety.