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Hi all,

I am Amit. I am 40 years old and currently living in Stockholm, Sweden, for the last eight years. I am working in IT sales for one of the largest Nordic IT service providers.

As my father was in government service, I have lived in 16 different cities so far and changed 12 schools till my Higher secondary. I love traveling, reading, and playing board games.

I must admit that knowing about automobiles and cars was not my first love till I turned 30. When I moved from Mumbai to Bangalore in the second half of 2010, I started looking for a car as public transport in Bangalore was patchy at best. During this time, I started growing my understanding of cars and the automobile industry in general.

It’s been exactly ten years now when I first found out about Team-BHP during my research for buying my first car. I still remember reading the Team-BHP review of Ritz, and it played a significant role in finalizing my first car as Ritz ZXI. Once I bought the car, I started spending more time on Team-BHP and appreciating the genuine discussions and insights on automobiles and broader topics of interest.

Within my family, we have had the following vehicles in India
1. Vijay super scooter (1980 to 1991)
2. Fiat Premier Padmini (1991-1998)
3. Maruti 800 (1998-2013)
4. Maruti Ritz (2011 – 2017)
5. Tata Nexon (2017 - )

When I moved to Stockholm in 2013, I relied heavily on public transportation. In my personal view, the public transport system in Stockholm is one of the most efficient and cost-effective public transport systems in the world. So, for the first few years, we did not think about buying the car.

However, I started thinking about the flexibility that comes with the car and the fantastic choices available in Sweden. I started my study to obtain the coveted Swedish driving license in the middle of 2018. I appeared for my theory and practical tests in November 2018, and I failed them miserably. With this, I lost my enthusiasm to clear the exam and discontinued my effort.

At the beginning of 2020, when Covid changed the world overnight, My wife and I decided to stop using public transport to limit our exposure. It severely impacted our mobility. I decided to attempt the rigorous process to get the license once again, and this time I was able to clear the tests on 19th May 2020. I now have a 2019 Kia Niro PHEV (bought 2nd hand). I am now switching to Tesla Model 3 2021 in the next week. I will write about my whole journey of taking the license and buying the cars in Sweden in a separate post as it was quite a learning experience for me.

I am delighted to be part of this community, and I will try and contribute to as many discussions as possible.

Regards,
Amit

Hej,

Trevligt att träffas.

Welcome to Team-bhp.

I also had a small stint in Sweden for three years, I am looking forward to the Tesla 3 ownership and the Sweden license threads from you.

Hej då.

Welcome to the forum Amit.

Sweden is a wonderful country and Stockholm a great city. I know it well. I have been working for Ericsson for a long time, so I have spend considerable time there. That is till end of 2019 obviously as I have not travelled for the last 15 months at all.

As you mention, public transportation in Stockholm is excellent, one of the best in the world. But there are other reasons for owning a car too. Look forward to be hearing about your experiences in Sweden.

Especially on using a Tesla in Swedish winter.

Jeroen

Welcome to Team Bhp.

I too am a newbie here relatively.

Looking forward to your thread about obtaining a driving license in Sweden. Also do post pictures and travelogues from your journeys in that beautiful country.

TrackDay

Welcome to the forum Amit, and congratulations on the Model 3!

We look forward to your posts on obtaining the DL, the Model 3 and your travels! I've visited Sweden for a few hours during one of our Northern Lights chases, from Tromso, and have been longing to visit again. This time, maybe during the summer to do a road trip across the country and region in general.

Can you elaborate on why this question other than drop in range?

Primarily because of the drop in range. I would like to hear about some real life experience on what temperature does with the range.

There is this "Scheduled Departure” departure feature on a Tesla. Which allows you to warm up the car prior to departure. It is more than just convenience for the driver/passenger, it also warms up the battery. Not sure how big a difference it makes in real life.

Jeroen

Dear all,

Thank you very much for the warm welcome. I will start building the thread capturing my journey to obtain a driving license in Sweden, which is one of the hardest and costliest to obtain, general norms of driving in Sweden, and car buying and selling experience.

Regarding Tesla Model 3 and its range in different conditions, I will elaborate on it during my upcoming ownership period.

In the meantime, if you are interested in knowing about the real-life experience of driving the car, I strongly recommend you to go through the Bjørn Nyland channel on youtube. He basically provides real-life reviews of electric cars in general. I am sure you will enjoy his off-beat and unconventional reviews. He literally lives in the car. Please go through his Tesla M3 2021 videos, and it will provide you an excellent view of M3 capabilities in harsh winter conditions.

I once again thank you all for such a warm welcome.

Regards,
Amit

Hi aved,

Welcome to Team-BHP. :) Pardon me for my ignorance, but when I hear Sweden, I think IKEA (only second to Volvo).

Unlike ecenandu, I don’t know any Swedish. So keeping that in mind, here is a little something I made to welcome you to the forum—



Jokes aside, it will be really interesting to read your thread on your journey to drive and own a car in Sweden, so hope it turns around quick.

Out of curiosity, what does - “Please go through the Forum Rules before you start your thread” mean in Swedish? lol:

I’m sure you will have a great stay here.

Thanks!
EightSix.

Thank you, EightSix, for the Swedish welcome.

Any swede basically has three goals in life, namely Villa, Volvo, and Vovve(dog). If you have these three Vs, then you have achieved everything.


'Jag kommer att gå igenom forumreglerna innan jag börjar någon ny tråd' (I will go through the forum rules before I start any new thread.)

Hello aved,

welcome to Team bhp.

My favorite footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic(Obviously you must of heard of him ) and one of my favorite car manufacturers Saab are from Sweden.

I like Saabs. Shame that they shutdown. I always fancied owning one. Hopefully there are a few well maintained Saabs in Sweden.

As far as my knowledge goes , Sweden's only 918 is registered in Stockholm. It belongs to Zlatan . He also happens to own an Enzo (Not sure if he owns it now) .

Hi Eshan,

Thank you for a warm welcome.

There are quite a few Saabs in Sweden. Even if Saab closes down, I am sure enthusiasts will keep the legacy alive for a long time to come. According to Car.info (you can get details about any car here), there are 5 918s in Sweden.

https://www.car.info/en-se/porsche/9...neration-14871

He did have Enzo, not sure if he still owns it or not. Recently he purchased Monza SP2, which looks fantastic.

Aved

Welcome On Board Aved!

Let me be the different guy here:

Can you tell me something about the sweet Volvos and Scanias plying on the roads there? Especially the Scania V8s' which are fixed with open pipes! I seriously dream getting behind the wheel of one and carry 20 tons uphill, with the engine still running near idle! Man, what a insane set of over powered trucks do these guys produce there! Or maybe the Indian ones are too anemic! :sadface


Damn, I wish we also had such beasts plying on our roads at 90 kph, they would look awesome even charging towards you in full rage lol:

Thank you, VKumar,

It was indeed a different welcome. Trust me, when these beasts run at 90 Kmph on the motorway here, you don't want to be near them in a car. I try not to look at them when I overtake them or when they overtake me.

Some of my friends, who work at Scania, have tested these trucks within Scania testing facilities, and they were impressed with the truck's responsiveness. This is probably one of the best employee benefits that you could lay your hand on pre-prod and prod version trucks and test it.

Aved

Welcome to T-BHP Amit. Hope to read more of your ownership experience with the Tesla later this year :)

Man, I like the Number too of the first one. Some Bond fan there :cool: