Tesla just rolled out the first Model S sedans to customers and the world's press. It's been a long time coming. With less than a dozen production cars for the flood of media clamoring for time in this new EV, we weren't granted long in the car – just ten minutes as a driver with a Tesla representative riding shotgun. Here are the nuggets gleaned:
01:00: The door handle is hidden. Touch the area on the door and a chrome handle glides out from the bodywork.
02:00: Sit in the driver's seat and the car turns itself on. The large 17-inch screen comes to life. It looks not unlike a giant iPhone, but this one has Google maps pulling live from the Internet.
03:00: At a stop sign, a Tesla rep says to floor it. Instant torque and the car rockets off. I reach 87 mph. Pretty impressive. As soon as I take my foot off the throttle the car slows and Model S navigates around a bend at 65 mph without any drama. The car feels stable.
04:00: The Model S has regenerated quite a bit of juice. I don't have to touch the throttle again as I'm only doing 20 mph by the time I reach a right hand turn. Moving on, I come to a public highway with a traffic light ahead that turns red. If I'd timed it right I could have a made it without using the brakes.
05:00: The light turns green and I'm told the speed limit is 40 mph but there's a turn up ahead that has a 35 mph recommended speed sign on it. No problem, the car feels planted with no body roll and the steering is tight. There's no torque steer in the rear-drive Tesla as I power through the corner making use of its low center of gravity.
06:00: On a smooth stretch of road, the Tesla rep demonstrates how he can change the cars settings from the large touch screen. He adjusts the steering to sport mode - it doesn't really feel any different. He then changes the regenerative brake setting and suddenly the car feels more like a gasoline-powered vehicle as there is virtually no "engine" braking. The standard setting is my preference as it's so responsive.
07:00: The road surface suddenly turns bad. Despite this the Model S still rides smoothly even with the low profile tires. I sense no squeaks or rattles. In an effort to make sure that the first cars have high quality, Tesla is only producing one car a day at present in the factory but plans to increase that to 80 a day by the end of the year.
08:00: It's time to get on a freeway, where we, ironically, drive past the closed Solyndra factory. The on ramp is one of those wonderful ones with two nice curves with tightening radius. The car handles it nicely reminding me of a BMW 5 Series as much as anything. I'm hitting 75 mph by the time I get onto the freeway. Almost immediately I have to slow to merge in heavy traffic. I don't have to touch the brakes as the car slows fast enough and plenty of green bars show up on the dash to inform me I'm recharging the battery. The Tesla rep tells me that the brake lights came on to warn drivers behind me that I was slowing down. There's a gyroscope that automatically turns on the brake lights, even when you don't touch the brake pedal, if deceleration is quick enough. Clever.
09:00: It's time to exit the freeway. I try to judge my rate of deceleration so I don't have to touch the brakes but I misjudge it and have to use the throttle to avoid going too slowly. I floor it again as we leave the traffic lights and can easily see that the 0-60 mph time should match the official figure of 5.6 seconds for the car I'm driving. The S Performance model with a more powerful motor can do it in 4.4 seconds.
10:00: My ten minute drive is over. The car tells me there's still a range of 187 miles. Not bad since it had been driven hard by myself and several test drivers previously who'd been giving rides to prospective customers.
A few weeks ago Elon Musk, Tesla's founder surprised critics when one of the other companies he founded, Space X, successfully launched a rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station and returned to a successful splashdown. It was the first commercial rocket in space. Although we should reserve full judgment on the Tesla S until they've made a few more and we've had a chance to perform a full road test it is looking more and more as though Tesla might become another of his successful launches.
