First Tesla Model 3 Deliveries Begin in Singapore

Photo: Lim Yaohui / The Straits Times

The first Tesla Model 3 deliveries in Singapore have been arriving in the country over the past month or so, and finally, some of the company’s first customers in the island city-state.

Tesla has officially delivered its first Model 3 in Singapore on Thursday morning, to preorder father and son customers Teng Po Yew and father James Teng, according to The Straits Times. The two arrived at an unfinished Tesla showroom in Toa Payoh Lorong 8, formerly a Nissan dealership and took delivery just after 10am local time on Thursday.

Though the deliveries arrived before the completion of Tesla’s Singapore service center, Tesla Country Manager Christopher Bousigues says that deliveries could take an additional two months if the company had waited for the service center to open.

Bousigues said, “We’re putting our customers’ needs ahead of our own. If we’re to start delivering cars only when our showroom is ready, it would be another two months.”

The Teng family, however, placed a preorder for the Model 3 in 2016, and have finally taken delivery five years after the initial order, and only about five months after the automaker officially entered Singapore.

The younger Mr. Teng says that the family elected the Model 3 Performance variant for the increased range of 567 kilometers (352 miles) over just 448 kilometers (278 miles) for the Standard variant.