Tesla is officially launching in the United Arab Emirates this month starting with service center in Dubai

Local Tesla enthusiasts have been asking for the company to have an official presence in the region for a long time and now it’s finally happening. Tesla confirmed that it will be launching in the United Arab Emirates this month – starting with an event in Dubai on February 13th.

The company has sent out invites for the launch at the Armani hotel in the Burj Khalifa tower – the tallest building on Earth.

We can expect that CEO Elon Musk will be present since he will be in the city during the launch.

He is set to attend the fifth edition of the World Government Summit (WGS 2017) the day before.

The automaker also started listing new manager and technician jobs for a service center in Dubai on its website.

Despite the current lack of sales and service presence, there are already a lot of Tesla vehicles in the UAE – approaching the hundreds – that were imported in the region by individuals.

It can be difficult to own a Tesla in a region that the company is not officially covering. They can arrange for a Tesla technician to fly in from Europe as a special ‘Tesla Ranger’ service if they need to, but aside from the lack of service centers, charging can also be difficult since the vehicles are imported from different countries that can have different charging standards.

When Tesla enters a new market, it makes sure that there are appropriate charging solutions and it often deploys its own Supercharger network.

There are some Supercharger stations in Jordan, but they are not disclosed on Tesla’s map because they seem to be operated privately at gas stations owned by the Manaseer Group. Entering the UAE should be the first official presence for Tesla in the Middle East.

Last year, owners in the region held an annual meeting and made a plea to Musk and Tesla for more service in the region. It looks like they are about to get their wish.

The UAE is only one of many new markets in which Tesla plans to expand in 2017 ahead of the launch of the Model 3. Tesla recently launched in Portugal, entered Taiwan, South Korea, and New Zealand.