Thursday, September 8, 2016

Ohm My God! The Tesla Model S





Pure electric: that’s the metaphorical and literal experience of driving the Tesla Model S. From the reassuring heavy door clunk on entering the space-age cabin, with its’ ample storage areas-no bulky engine to clog up rear boot or under bonnet space- to the massive display monitor positioned on the dash and plush comfy driving seat, the Model S screams luxury with a futuristic edge.
The aluminium bodywork is reputed to last ‘a million miles’ with only the battery requiring replacement over its lifetime. The solid aluminium frame affords the car a 5 star NCAP safety rating. A fully charged battery in the Model S can last anything from 260-290 miles, depending on driving style and the cost of recharging the battery, from home in the UK, is estimated at approximately 4.5p per mile. If charging from a Tesla Supercharger station it’s free and Tesla has guaranteed this for the lifetime of the car. A Supercharge can give your battery a half charge during a 20 minute session.
To drive a Tesla it’s necessary to completely reconfigure your driving etiquette: there is no ignition (nothing to ignite!)...the car automatically starts up when you’re sitting in the driving seat. Place the car in drive (or reverse, depending on your position) and it glides majestically and silently into motion.  Acceleration (and it’s explosive) is really all that’s necessary. By taking your foot off the accelerator the car automatically brakes, rather than slows down, which is a little disconcerting at first.  A real bonus is that there is no need for a manual handbrake. This intelligent car senses the need to brake on hills, whilst stationary, after depressing the foot brake (hill-hold function).
Cruising at 60 on a dual carriageway (and, btw, you can get to 60mph in 5.2 seconds) my passenger encouraged me to try ‘auto-pilot’ mode, the autonomous driving system best known in Google self-driving cars. With several large lorries creeping up my rear end, it was somehow anti-intuitive to employ this feature. But I did, with my hands hovering over the steering wheel. Locked into ‘auto-pilot’ the car senses surrounding vehicles and brakes, changes lanes or accelerates accordingly: a surreal feeling as a ‘driver/passenger’ (especially if you’re a bit of a control freak) but an invaluable feature as respite from a long haul motorway journey. (Just don’t give up completely and watch a Harry Potter movie, as one unfortunate guy did in Florida quite recently, culminating in a fatal crash).
I test drove the Model S as I was interested in the forthcoming Model 3 (a smaller, more economical version with a denser more efficient battery pack) hopefully due for release in the UK in 2018. Tesla are taking £1000 (fully refundable) deposits for the 3 (with an estimated price of around £32,000 minus a government electric car contribution of £4,500). 400,000 of the 500,000 Model 3’s available for release globally, have already been reserved in this way.

Tesla Model 3
Elon Musk: CEO of Tesla Motors: The New Raider of the Lost Quark



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