KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 — Several Tesla customers have said that Tesla Malaysia has reached out to them via phone and/or e-mail and asked them to perform initial payment for their order.

While the company didn’t explicitly mention it in their communications, this seemed to signify that Tesla might be getting ready to deliver their EVs to Malaysian customers very soon.

When the Tesla Model 3 Highland was first officially revealed to the world on September 1, it was immediately available for booking through Tesla Malaysia’s website. In addition to that, the site also noted that the first deliveries are estimated to take place in late 2023 and this is much earlier than the Model Y which will only arrive in Malaysia next year.

That being said, there are several details in the e-mail that Tesla Malaysia sent to customers that seemed a little bit questionable. For one, the bank that was listed for the downpayment transaction is Citibank which is not exactly out of the ordinary until you consider the fact that Citibank’s consumer banking businesses in Malaysia have been acquired by UOB.

By that logic, the listed bank account should be a UOB account instead.

However, it might be possible that Tesla Malaysia’s Citibank account is a commercial banking account since Citi Commercial Bank is still in operation in Malaysia and was not part of UOB’s acquisition.

Meanwhile, the RM15,000 initial payment that was stated in the e-mail is way lower than the minimum 10 per cent downpayment that a car buyer has to pay in Malaysia as required by the law.

In fact, even Tesla Malaysia’s website specifically listed the lowest downpayment for a Tesla Model 3 Highland as RM18,900 which corresponds to the vehicle’s starting price of RM189,000.

Furthermore, the email also said that customers have to make the payment and pass the receipt to the assigned Tesla Malaysia advisor by 20 September. Not only that the time frame that customers have to make payment is rather short, the e-mail also said that the RM15,000 initial payment is non-refundable which seemed a bit off as well.

Hence, we have since reached out to Tesla Malaysia’s representative to obtain further clarification and are currently waiting for their response. So, stay tuned. — SoyaCincau