Tesla Model S hits the UK second-hand market – at a premium

You can have a Tesla Model S now, but it’ll cost you

The Tesla Model S is now, finally, starting to the UK in RHD, and it offers, for the first time, an electric powertrain that comes very close to offering the same convenience in use as a normal ICE car. True, it’s a far from cheap car to buy – prices start from around £50k and go up to around £100k if you throw caution to the wind and spec up almost everything on the Model S options list.

But despite the steep prices, the Model S can be something of a bargain, especially if you’re a business user.

For the current tax year (up to April 2015) business users will pay zero BIK on the Model S – even if it’s a £100k Model S – although that will ratchet up over the next five years to 13 per cent (5% 2015-16, 7% 2016-17, 9% 2017018 and 13% 2018-19), but even at 13 per cent BIK that’s not much more than a third of the BIK on many comparable luxury ICE cars.

So it’s no surprise there’s strong demand for a new Tesla Model S, with Tesla quoting delivery times, realistically, of around 6 months.

But the first Model S’s are now starting to hit the market, with our old friends *Supervettura – purveyors of all things ‘super’ in cars and UK dealers for Koenigsegg and BAC – having one of the first Model S on sale.

Supervettura’s Model S isn’t quite top spec – it doesn’t have leather or the Performance Plus Package – but it is a Performance 85 model with enough extras to bring its list price up to around £82k, so it’s a model S with real appeal.

That’s down to the performance – 0-60mph in not much over 4 seconds – thanks to more than 400bhp and a big wodge of instant torque, and a range that’s quoted as over 300 miles on a full charge (less in the real world) and running costs that seem insignificant compared to a comparable ICE car.

But if you want to get in to a Model S now – not when Tesla can manage to deliver one – is going to cost you a premium, and in this case its around £13k – Supervettura wants £95k for their Model S.

But if you are a top-rate taxpayer, you’ll save the premium on your BIK before the end of the tax year if you’re currently driving almost anything comparable to the Tesla Model S.

 *Disclaimer: Supervettura are a Cars UK advertiser

By Cars UK