How do Tesla match customer orders with cars?

Tesla is one of the most popular EV brands that we offer. And for good reason.

They’re a true disruptor of the automotive industry. Which means they do things slightly differently to some other car manufacturers.

One of the things that Tesla do differently is how they take orders for new cars. This can have an impact on your delivery date, so we want to explain why that is.

Tesla manufactures its cars based on predicted demand, rather than building them to order. This means when an Octopus EV customer orders an EV from Tesla, they give us an expected delivery date based on that predicted demand, not based on that particular car being built to order.

Tesla ships their cars to the UK on a quarterly basis (so every 3 months a new shipment arrives). When the cars arrive in the UK, they’re then matched to customer orders, using their (Vehicle Identification Numbers (or VINs). The cars are matched to customers on a first come, first served basis (taking into account the specification of the car you’ve ordered).

So if your order isn’t matched to a car when shipment arrives, it will be because there are more orders ahead of yours in the ‘queue’.

What happens if my order isn’t matched to a car?

If your order isn’t matched to a car when that quarter’s shipment arrives, it’ll most likely be on the next shipment which will be within 3 months. If this happens we’ll let you know as soon as we have your updated expected delivery date.

Why do Tesla match customer orders with cars only when they arrive in the UK?

The reason Tesla matches customer orders with cars when they arrive in the UK, rather than build them to order, is to streamline their operations and therefore keep costs down. On the whole this works well, but it does result in some delays to deliveries. If this is the case for your car we’ll let you know as soon as we have any information.