Hi I'm Joe weisenfelder with cars.com we did a seperate video on the 2012 tesla model s
electric car discussing the general aspects in driving now we're gonna concentrate on
issues of range, charging times and also some unintended consequences of features we showed
in the other video and some of the other quirks as well.
there are 3 battery sizes available or soon to be available for the model s.
theres 40, 60, 85 kilowatt hour battery.
the larger it is the more it costs and the ranges start, lets start with this one the
largest battery rated up to 300 miles of range per charge.
the middle one is rated at 230 miles of range thats the up 2 number and the smallest battery
pack 160.
most of the model s charging can be done with this mobile charging cord that comes with
the car now its still a proprietary system it doesn't use the same connector that most
of the other electric cars use but it is at least smaller and easier.
now there are a Number of different attachments for the other end.
heres the simplest it is for a houshold 110 120 volt outlet attach it like this, you plug
it in you get a green light on your box here and then you go over to the car plug it in.
once the cord is energized you bring it over here push the button and it pops open the
charge door which is pretty hidden.
the rest is pretty simple plug it on in first it goes blue to say im talking to the charge
box and then it turns green and pulsates that means your charging.
at the same time the green indicator on the box on the other end shows flow.
this is known as level one charging it delivers less than 1.5 kilowatts.
the problem is it is practically pointless for a car like this.
it adds roughly 5 miles of range for every hour of of charging the next level of charging
its called level 2 thats the kind you'll find out in public and if you EV before you probably
have level 2 charging at home.
that has a different kind of connector but that has an adapter so the regular pistol
grip you find its call J1772 you put that in one end and go directly into the charge
port you don't use that separate cord at all.
what this does is it essentially quadruples the current you're giving the car about 6.6
kilowatts and that gives you about 20 miles of range for every hour of charging.
where tesla really earns its stripes is its ability to charge even fast even at home we
go back to the cord as before instead of using the 120 volt plug there are a number of different
240 bolt plugs you can attach.
this one happens to be the type that is the most common on camp grounds and such now this
will provide enough current to the car to deliver more than 9 kilowatts at a time and
that gives you about 30 31 miles of range for every hour of charging.
thats faster than any other electric car on the market unless you go to the quick charging
systems which i don't think anyones gonna own at home.
the good thing about this is that with this provided apparatus is that all you need is
the outlet so you dont need to invest in a level two unit.
now this leads us to some of the shortcomings and unintended consequences.
remember when this door was closed we got near it with our plug and it popped open because
it knew it was there if you're charging using a level 2 unit even at home it won't recognize
it.
so you have to pop this thing its not on the key fob as it is on the chevy volt.
thats annoying.
whats also annoying as you get in to pop it you cant just reach it you have to get in
and sit in the seat because the seat sensors is what tells the car to turn on once the
car turns on you can reach to the center control panel to that touch screen and unlock it.
then theres the Interesting door handles they serve a purpose to keep the car sleek and
aero dynamic and they're certainly cool but they're not very consistent.
sometimes they work sometimes they don't.
theres a good number of not yets in this car.
for example for the backup camera it doesn't show you the lines for where your fender's
gonna be backing but its coming.
also not here yet any means of setting it up to pre cool or pre heat the cabin which
pretty much is standard.
and then frustrating the darn butt sensor. which turns the car off when you get out you
can't even get in the car turn the heater on turn the heater on and then get out.
because you get out turns the car off stops heating the car.
butt sensor causes other problems for us for one thing its kind of a dead man switch.
if you open the door and get out it assumes you don't know the cars on or maybe its even
in gear and you don't know it as a result, sometimes i'll be backing up, lean to the
side, the butt sensor thinks i'm gone and the car will hit park really hard.
unintended deceleration one of the reasons that happens is because the car doesn't pre
forward or pre back when its in drive or reverse its called idol creep so thats a feature thats
coming and when i say its coming its not just coming on future model S vehicles its coming
to this one and this is one of the big advantages of this type of car, this type of display
and the lack of physical buttons is they can change it they can evolve it over time and
these software updates come wirelessly they come in the middle of the night.
you come out in the morning and all the sudden you've got new features.
so all of the little things I've been mentioning that bug me having to lean in and hit that
button and having the charge port not open a lot of that stuff can be addressed through
software.
initially i thought that the missing feature and quirks made this essentially an unfinished
car it was annoying to me but after a while understanding how they can update it things
changed for me not when chevy and nissan came out with their electric cars and they had
a few things they needed to address everyone criticized them oh how can you use your owners
as beta testers but it seems like the early buyers of these cars actually want to be beta
testers they're feeding back to tesla and they feel like their part of this movement.
a new scrappy company thats just getting started so i do appreciate what they've done and i
think i do appreciate more what they're trying to do.