So, maybe you've heard this one: a young entrepreneur founds a company that makes it easy to send
money to people electronically. The company, called PayPal, is bought by eBay for 1.5 billion
dollars. The same entrepreneur then goes on to found another company that builds rocket
motors and satellite launch vehicles, picking up a few contracts from NASA in the process.
That one's called SpaceX. At the same time, he decides to build a car company, one who's
stated aim is to convince people that electric cars are the way forward. After gaining experience
with an electric Roadster, the company designs an entirely new car from the ground up. That
car is the Tesla Model S.
Of course, it's not the first electric car. But it is the
first electric car you can take seriously, thanks to its blend of space, performance
and a useable range. In terms of style, the shape cuts an athletic silhouette that wouldn't
look out of place if it wore a seriously premium badge - dare we say there's even a hint of
Aston Martin about the rear end? We're not necessarily fans of the gloss black section
in the front bumper where the grille would normally be, but we have to say that some
of the detailing is superb, particularly the retractable door handles that pop-out when
you approach the car. The interior's pretty well put together, too, and although there
are a couple of areas where the quality takes a hit, for the most part it all feels very
agreeable. We will say, though, that the steeply raked A-pillars making getting in and out
a little tricky for tall drivers, and we'd like an easy-exit function for the electric
steering column. There's also very little storage space, with few places to leave your
phone, and if you leave it on the shelf underneath the central touch-screen, you get endless
interference through the car's speakers. What little switchgear there is is taken from Mercedes
- and there's nothing wrong with that - with the dashboard dominated by the huge central
touch-screen that provides access to the car's main features. We could probably make an entire
video about this alone, but the system has an incredibly intuitive interface that makes
getting around easy. The car includes a permanent 3G data connection, and this gives access
to the Google Maps-based navigation system that includes satellite view as well as a
more conventional 2D map. It's not perfect - there are no speed limit indications, for
instance, and no choice of planned routes, although these are things that could be easily
added later. The ventilation system has a set of controls that sit at the bottom of
the screen, while the rest of the car's functions are accessed via a series of tabs, where you'll
find buttons for the lights, the optional sunroof, the suspension height (with the car
remembering settings for particular roads), plus the heated seats, including those in
the rear, and so on. There's also a pretty impressive hifi system that's linked to Rdio,
so you can play almost any track you can think of, although in terms of sound quality it's
not quite up there with the likes of Lexus. There's also a built-in web browser, although
obviously that's best left for your passenger to play with, plus a rear-view camera that
you can activate even when on the move. The instruments are based around a central dial
that combines speed, power use and regeneration, with a graph that shows how heavy-footed you've
been on the right. The rear seat has been designed to accommodate three adults, and
that's quite possible thanks to the completely flat floor, but passengers over 6-foot might
find headroom a bit of an issue. If you've got young kids, there's the option of a pair
of extra seats in the boot, and these fold flat into the floor out of the way when you're
not using them. If outright cargo space is more important, the Tesla's huge boot offers
nearly 1,800 litres with the seats folded, and although they leave a bit of a step, it's
still a hugely practical load area, complete with space for the various electric charging
cables. If that's still not enough space for you, there's additional storage in the front
where the engine would normally be. Right, that's enough of the practicalities. What's
it like on the road? The first thing you'll notice is that at low speeds, it's weirdly
quiet in here. Someday, all cars will be like this, but for now the appeal of pulling away
in silence never grows old. The one problem, though, is that - for any car - once you remove
the engine noise, you're left with all the other sounds such as wind and tyre noise.
Wind noise is remarkably well suppressed, but once you're above 40mph or so, tyre noise
does become much more noticeable, not helped by the fact our car was wearing 21-inch rims.
That's not to say the Tesla is loud - just that if you were expecting to swan around
the place in complete silence, you might need to readjust your expectations a little. The
second thing you'll notice is how bloody quick it is. Even the base single-motor model accelerates
from 0-60 in 5.9 seconds, but if you plump for the dual-motor performance version, you
not only get four-wheel drive but also a 0-60 time of just 3.2 seconds. That's a four-door
saloon, accelerating faster than a 911 Turbo. Insane. Numbers are only half the story, though,
because the Tesla's party trick is that maximum torque is available whenever you want. No
waiting for the engine to spin up, plant your foot in the carpet at any speed and full power
is immediately delivered. This doesn't just make it fun to burn off anything you can think
of from the lights. It also makes every gap an overtaking opportunity. And an effortless
one, at that. It doesn't completely disgrace itself through the bends, either, although
there's no disguising the fact this is a big, heavy car. That means it's capable, but not
necessarily engaging. If you hoon about the countryside you'll find yourself quickly putting
a serious dent in the Tesla's range, but if you drive like a normal person with the occasional
burst of blowing someone into the weeds, you'll get an average of around 230 miles from a
full charge. That makes it the first electric vehicle that makes sense in the real world.
Of course, that also brings us on to the subject of charging. You can plug it into the mains
via a standard three-pin plug, but charging that way is painfully slow: you're talking
about 5 miles of range for every hour of charge, but even that will be enough for the average
person's commute if left overnight. A much better option is to use Tesla's own network
of Superchargers, and this - we think - is what makes the Tesla a seriously compelling
option for many. There's about 20 in the UK at the moment, although more are coming online
all the time. Charging is dead easy - pull into a bay, open the charge port by tapping
a button on the touch-screen, and plug in the connector. You can wander off and grab
a coffee, safe in the knowledge that the connector can't be removed by a passing idiot, but to
be honest we found it no hard-ship to sit and wait. The Supercharger's claim to fame
is that they can give you half a charge in about 20 minutes, and a full charge in no
more than an hour. The best bit, though, is that they're free. If there are no superchargers
on your route, you can still jack in to pretty much any public charger. Most will charge
at a rate of about 60 miles per hour if you've opted for dual chargers in your car, and you
can keep an eye on its progress through the Tesla app which, by the way, also allows you
to set the climate control, lock and unlock the car and - if you've lent it to someone
- see where they've taken it. The Tesla makes particular sense if bought as a company car
- there's zero benefit-in-kind tax, it pays no road tax, is exempt from the London congestion
charge, and even if you don't live near a Supercharger, it's still cheaper to run than
a conventional car. If you're used to taking long journeys in a single stride, the Tesla
perhaps isn't for you. The company reasons that most people drive for a few hours, then
stop for lunch or a pee break, during which the car can be recharged, but that does mean
you need to plan your route a little more carefully to ensure it takes in the required
number of charging stations, and it seems a shame the built-in satnav doesn't appear
to be able to help you with this. But then that may come later, as Tesla has an impressive
record of tweaking the car via over-the-air software updates. Recently, they added a feature
called Autopilot, which uses an array of ultrasonic sensors and cameras to provide functions such
as lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control, and - in time - even the ability
for the car to park itself. Given it takes most manufacturers an eternity to fix bugs
in their software, if they fix them at all, this approach is yet another breath of fresh
air. In the end, it all boils down to this: judged as a car, the Tesla is very impressive,
but with a few foibles. But judged as an electric car, it's nothing short of astounding. In
fact, it makes me wonder: just what have the other car manufacturers been doing all this
time, if what amounts to an internet start-up company can suddenly come out with this.