Tesla has started selling its luxury electric cars in Dubai, its first venture into the Middle East, a media report said.Reuters said Tesla was accepting online orders from customers in the United

Arab Emirates, a pop-up store in the Dubai Mall and a Tesla service centre being built on Dubai's Sheikh Zayed Road, which is due to open in July.

Founder Elon Musk told the news agency Tesla would open a showroom and service centre in Abu Dhabi in 2018 and plans to expand to Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia. At a press conference in Dubai, he declined to elaborate on his wider plans or timeline for expansion outside the UAE.

Deliveries begin in July and customers will be able to charge their vehicles at home or at 28 locations across the UAE, which Tesla hopes to increase to 50 by the end of the year.

Tesla is officially in Mexico, Canada, Europe (with a Netherlands final assembly plant), Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan and its cars are known to be in other markets such as New Zealand.