I took an opportunity today to drive the tesla model S.. staff were brilliant, and I drove for about an hour!

 

 

expensive tyres on 21 inch wheels...

 

 

 

The interior was nice... loved the dash and the tablet...

 

 

so what did I think?

 

well I was a little dissapointed to be honest .....

 

anyway.... I like the way the car looks, both inside and out, the interior is lovely, but there are quality issues (That I wouldn't stand for on an £80k car!) for example the seats were already sagging in the back, the leather on the steering wheel boss was wrinkled across one corner.... a brittle plastic trim... (the current Golf R32 has a nicer feeling dash!) but overall a nice place to be.. lots of space, comfy seats, nice steering wheel , lovely dash .... nice. I don't know how this would compare to an £80k Jag for example..... but  it was nice.

 

tech: The tech was pretty awesome.... the cars sonar ect looking around you all the time, ready to warn you of things, ready to drive for you if ness assuming it can read the road properly (we have poor roads around here)... its like driving a massive laptop! battery tech is good, no real range worries, a "proper" car...

 

the drive.... one of the most important things to me... we were in the P85D , which is pretty quick, sub 4 seconds 0-60 and 4WD...

 

thing is this is a HEAVY car (2 tons?) .... driven gently in traffic, its bloody awesome..... quiet, smooth, comfy , can drive itself (literally) what a relaxing place to be!

 

driven an "normal " road speeds A-roads ect with traffic... again, VERY capable..... such a nice luxury barge, havent ever been in such an easy car to drive...

 

until you "push on" that is   lets make it clear this car is fast, but its NOT a sports car.....

 

acceleration from the moment you put your foot down, almost defies physics.... especially from standstill or low speeds....but it fades the faster you go.... for example a big power turbo car "winds up" from slower acceleration to quick acceleration.... this seems opposite! from 0-50 I doubt anything could keep up with it, its stupidly fast, you have to adjust your perceptions a bit to keep up with it!!! but then the performance seems to fade....

 

ride handling: lovely ride, adjustable suspension ect  very clever... feels planted...

 

I actually really liked the regenerative braking (it actually slows down downhill when you come off throttle) I incorporated that into my driving very quickly, and really liked it.

 

BUT push on like I was in the Abarth on the way to the test drive, on roads like this (this pic is through the windscreen of the Abarth on the way home)

 

 

 

and it all goes wrong... the car is just too heavy. the grip is surprisingly MUCH less than I thought it would be on its huge expensive tyres... I threw it into a couple of corners like I was the Abarth on the way there (much less speed than I was in the Abarth,its a test drive of an expensive car, didn't want to be silly) and I found the limit of grip very quickly! steering feel is surprisingly good, considering its all electric, and it was squirming all over, even under traction with 4WD it was struggling! the limit is way to soon to have any fun...

 

I quickly stopped trying to have fun on the country roads, and got back to pretending I was an executive on the way to a meeting.... the car was MUCH happier with that ...

 

now I know it was wet and cold, about 6C (we didn't venture into the snowy peaks in the tesla, stayed lower down) and I know the Abarth is on all season tyres..... but i would estimate the cornering grip to be about 50% of what the Abarth has under these conditions.... I even got it on a wobble turning into a side road! I wasn't really pushing it!

 

so.... a very nice luxury barge..... would I have one ? no. its too expensive for what it is. when we get the $30,000 model 3 in a few years, smaller lighter etc, I may be persuaded...

 

biggest thing is, It really didn't strike me as an £80k car.... I don't think its worth the money. I really wanted it to handle better too, felt unstable when pushing on,and poor grip...on big roads, in other parts of the country besides the lakes, I'm sure its much happier than on our little country roads in bad weather...

 

If I needed a car to do big miles on motorways, and big A-roads, it would be much better suited.

 

but I had SO much more fun on the way home in a car that cost us £8k...

 

 

 

maybe its just me (these are just my opinions, other opinions ARE available, and I'm sure some people will disagree with me! ... lol..) but it left me feeling a little dissapointed...

 

I like a lot of things about it, and I think its the future and the way forward... but at this point in my life, I still need a car that will excite me when I drive it down my favorite country road.. and sadly the model S doesn't, maybe its not supposed to ? it doesn't pretend to be a sports car, but I get the feeling a supercharged Jag would have left me with a bigger smile on my face!

 

much thanks to tesla for the opportunity, nice to get a handle on how these things drive Its a whole new concept, and there is a lot of potential !

 

maybe when I'm old.....

Edited 29 April, 201610 yr by sharkrider

I know people have order the Model 3 and this should be more the younger persons car.

 

Wish the EU would reduce the import taxes from 10% to 5% or zero to make it cheaper to buy as it is so much greener.

the model 3 is what I'm looking forward to.... 1) cheaper , 2) lighter...... we will see, should be a better overall package.... they said $30,000 , what that will translate to by the time we get them I don't know.... if its a £25,000 car then great! but will we have electric car discounts then? what will the exchange rate/taxes be? will we have a decent trade agreement with the US at that time? will we be in the EU at that time ?

 

 

I'll wait and see...

Edited 1 May, 201610 yr by sharkrider

the model 3 is what I'm looking forward to.... 1) cheaper , 2) lighter...... we will see, should be a better overall package.... they said $30,000 , what that will translate to by the time we get them I don't know.... if its a £25,000 car then great! but will we have electric car discounts then? what will the exchange rate/taxes be? will we have a decent trade agreement with the US at that time? will we be in the EU at that time ?

I'll wait and see...

 

I think around $35K will be the normal spec with a decent amount of kit, that is what may work colleague has ordered and people order over quarter of a million in the first few days putting their $1000 deposit down.  Elon Musk aka Tony Stark, or is it the other way round, is pretty shrewd getting to pay for technology that is not quite there.  My company produces LMP batteries for our own electric cars rather than lithium ion and I do wonder if/when other car manufacturers will switch to LMP or whether another battery technology will emergy as the future for mobile and static electrical storage.

"aka Tony Stark" lol...

"aka Tony Stark" lol...

 

When preparing to make Iron Man they went to talk to Elon Musk as inspiration for.

 

Spacex is also his passion....

 

I did not know that!

He's got a pricelist for Mars payloads

Nice review.

Not driven one myself but I think your comments on the lack of grip probably reinforce your assessment that the wrong season tyres were fitted for the conditions. There are a lot of luxury 2WD cars of similar weight and they don't seem to have the same problems. Then again jumping in one of these from an Abarth could account a lot towards that perception

Battery technology is not quite there for EV from my point of view. Lots of promising new battery research though that will address the capacity/weight/longevity/ruggedness/price issues. Well maybe not all the issues at the one time but I would expect marked improvements in the next five years.