Tesla

Tesla is an innovative car manufacturer that you may or may not have heard about, but it’s about time you did. The company was founded, mainly, by Elon Musk who is known for founding PayPal and SpaceX.

Tesla makes beautiful electric cars. Keywords here are beautiful and electric. For some reason most hybrid, electric or generally “good for the environment” cars forget to look like cars.

Cars like the Prius and G-Whiz have failed to capture what makes cars so special. The looks and soul. The new Tesla manages to do this without the purring of a Jaguar or the roaring of a Lamborghini, and with much more efficiency and practicality than some other electric cars.

Model S

The Model S is not Tesla’s first car. The first cars were various prototypes but the first real, production vehicle was the Tesla Roadster, a small sporty car that wasn’t aimed at a mass market. That is what the Model S is for. This car is electric yet can do 0 to 60 in 5.2 seconds or lower, if you opt for more powerful electric motors and a supercharger. It also has a top speed of 125 or 130, which is more than enough for everyday driving. Yet, after all this, there will be zero emissions coming from the car.

The Tesla Roadster

The car has lots of Lithium Ion batteries on board which power the electric motors. These batteries can power the car for 300 miles, this is enough to get you from London to Newcastle in one trip.

Another great thing about this car compared to its competition is that it charges quickly. The Model S can charge at the rate of 68 miles range per hour. So in 4 – 5 hours, the car will be fully charged. You won’t need to charge it fully every time you need to charge it. An hour or so a day should keep the car juiced up. But before any long trip, you might want to charge it up a bit more. What also makes this car special is the small touches. For instance, the charging port is hidden in the rear tail light. When you bring the charging pin close to the tail light, it will pop open. There is also a large 17 inch display in the centre console, this allows the driver to access detailed information about the state of the car, satellite navigation, internet, show views from cameras around the car and allows the user to connect their phone and make calls from the car.

The batteries powering the car are the stars here. There are 7,104 cells inside the car, these are in arrays of 74 cells per module. The batteries are laid out flat under the car, forming the chassis of the vehicle. This is an advantage as it gives the car a lower centre of gravity and improves handling.

The Tesla Model S in Black

The stinger here, to be expected with this kind of car, is the price. Which is £50,000 for the lowest spec model and it goes up to £101, 705 with all the bells and whistles on the highest spec model. Also, with this being an American company, there aren’t many servicing stores or dealerships in the UK or across Europe.

Nevertheless, Tesla is a revolution and is helping to make the electric car desirable and more fashionable which is a good idea given that the Prius were made famous by Hollywood stars driving them daily. Tesla and Elon Musk can only manage to make these cars cheaper and more practical as time goes on but they need to address some minor issues with production, reduce the risk of fires (which are unlikely but do happen) and make the price more reasonable.

I really do hope this company succeeds which, luckily for the environment, seems highly likely as the Tesla Model S outsold the Mercedes S Class, BMW 7 Series and Audi A6 in 2012.

Visit the company’s website here: Tesla Website

Fancy yourself driving the Tesla Model S? Or think it’s got to be a super fuel guzzler to be a super car? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!