I bought my Model X on March 28th and it was scheduled for production on April 5th.

I had been warned by the Tesla owners I follow on YouTube and Twitter to expect a frustrating wait and I wasn’t disappointed. The Tesla app which you download when you buy your car provides the updates on the status of the car, and the wait for changes in status is agonising.

The next update was a few days later on April 9th when I was given my VIN number (that happens when the car is scheduled for production and is the thing that ties all your future dealings with Tesla together).

April 12th and my app notifies me that my Tesla is now in production. Now for the long wait.

April 18th and my car is apparently built and in the delivery system en route to the port. Teslas are built in Freemont, California and travel by train to the port at Houston, Texas.

On April 30th I thought I ought to get ready so I drove to the service centre at Dartford to buy a Tesla Wall Connector (they are not chargers and technically the charging is done in the car) and a thing called a Chademo adapter which is needed to connect to Chademo rapid chargers (the only thing available near where I needed it in North Norfolk).

On May 7th I got the notification that my car was on the ship bound for Tilburg and after what seemed an age, on May 25th the app informed me the car was finally at Tilburg in the Netherlands ready for reassembly and then transport by car transporter to Dartford.

On Monday June 10th I finally got the word that the car could be picked up the following Friday.

All did not go to plan on Friday….

I arrived as agreed at 11.30am for my pick-up and hand-over only to find that they weren’t expecting me until the following week. There had apparently been a mix up in communications but the staff were excellent and located the car (stored at Blue Water) and said they could get it ready by 4pm if I was happy to come back, which I was.

I intended to leave just after 3pm to make sure I was in plenty of time, but I had a call about 2.45pm saying there was a large diesel spillage on the M25 and the Dartford tunnel was closed as a result and that traffic would be worse than usual so I should leave now.

It took me over three hours to go 20 miles, the last hour within a mile of the service centre. But the hand-over staff stayed behind in an otherwise deserted building and I finally picked up my car at about 6.30pm.

I should have had a leisurely hand-over and had everything explained to me but with no time it was just a question of getting in and driving off. Lucky I’d watched all those YouTube videos!

All’s well that ends well.

Why did I decide to buy a Tesla Model X? Well, I definitely decided that I wanted an electric car in January 2019 and there were relatively few cars available at that time. Mercedes had announced that they would be launching the EQC at some stage, and as a current (happy) Mercedes owner that would seem an obvious choice.

However, there were two big constraints: I travel to Norfolk at least every month which is 150 miles away. As charging options are extremely limited there I needed a car with a big range; I travel with two dogs, two parolets, five tortoises and up to five adults(!), so I need a lot of cargo space.

When the details of the EQC emerged it was obvious that it was a mid-sized SUV and, while it was likely to have the range I needed, it was short of space.

That left Tesla as the only manufacturer who had cars big enough and with enough range to fit the bill. On closer inspection, the Model S, the family saloon, didn’t have a big enough cargo space, so the Model X was the only choice.

There were some positives and negatives to weigh up:

On the positive sides, I loved the fact that Tesla was building electric cars from the ground up and their integrated approach to hardware and software seemed to me the future.

On the negative side, the nearest service centre was in Dartford, 30 minutes drive away on a good day, compared to a Mercedes service centre a short walk from my house (which meant I could drop my Merc in for a service and walk home).

It turns out, though, that the negatives are not nearly as significant as you might think. Electric cars need next to no servicing – Tesla used to suggest an annual service but now just relies on the cars to report when they need work. Because they have many fewer moving parts, there is much less to go wrong, and things like regenerative braking means brake disks and pads are unlikely to need changing for years. The only things you regularly need to worry about are windscreen washer fluid and wiper blades, and tyres.

So, that was it – after a trip to the Tesla showroom in Canary Wharf and a short test drive, I took the plunge and ordered my car.