Tesla Model S review: A good first impression

http://money.cnn.com/2012/07/23/autos/tesla-model-s-review/

by PaulMcCartney • 14 years ago

47 42 14 years ago

money.cnn.com

bdfh425• 14 years ago

A review does not include the words "Turns are accomplished (or so I'm told) with hardly any body lean...". Not a review but a short ride in a $100,000 car - so no surprises that the reporter found some elements nice.

Mind even this stage managed puff piece had to end with a reminder that "Tesla faces the mundane challenges of producing the car profitably in relatively high volumes...".

peeters• 14 years ago

Puff piece? Did you read the whole article through a neutral lens? Here are some excerpts you might have missed:

> At slow speeds the Model S feels disappointingly like a hefty, battery-laden electric car. With a light foot on the accelerator, it shuffles from stop sign to stop sign with all the eagerness of a fat man asked to change seats on an airliner. You can almost hear it sigh.

> Fortunately, for me, the brake pedal works just as well as the accelerator nicely preventing me from rear-ending cars ahead after each startling burst of speed.

Even the quote that you took out of context was a begrudging acknowledgement that it was believable that the car would handle well given the low center of gravity, but that he'd have to wait to say for sure.

tocomment2• 14 years ago

What always goes through my mind when I imagine buying one of these is, "my laptop battery died after two years". How do I know the same thing won't happen with this car? If not two years, what happens to this car in 5 years, 10 years?

Is there any guarantee this car will be drivable in 10 years? Is there even a process for replacing the battery? What would it cost?

bdfh425• 14 years ago

I don't know the specifics of this model but most electric cars on the market come with a lease agreement for the batteries - you don't get to own them.

I also understand that the batteries need swapping in a lot less than 10 years.

smackfu2• 14 years ago

Most cars only have a 5-year powertrain warranty anyways.

bdfh425• 14 years ago

But there is a huge difference between the length of a warranty and one's reasonable expectation of a functional lifetime.

My last car only came with a 4 year warranty (now expired) but I bet it is still driving just fine in another 10 years.

Peroni6• 14 years ago

Your powertrain won't cost $40k to replace unlike Tesla batteries.

ghostfish• 14 years ago

There is an 8 year warranty on the battery in a Model S, with mileage depending on which capacity version you own.

tocomment2• 14 years ago

Oh that's a start. It's still hard to swallow that a 50K+ car will be worthless in 8 years.

Peroni6• 14 years ago

The tesla battery costs approximately $40k to purchase and replace. There was widespread coverage of Tesla Roadsters being 'bricked'. Essentially more than a few Roadster owners reported that if the car was left sitting idle for more than a month or so it was rendered useless as the battery requires a constant trickle feed of electricity if parked up over a long period of time.

It was discussed at length here on HN too:

http://theunderstatement.com/post/18030062041/its-a-brick-te...

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3618946

jsvaughan• 14 years ago

This is just FUD. This is nothing to do with Tesla, and just the case with most battery chemistries. Even if the article is true, it has only happened to 0.2% of Tesla cars and it would be solved by a £15 solar charger.

More relevant comments on slashdot

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/02/23/0310255/why-tesl...

rjsamson• 14 years ago

Yeah - this is FUD that was pretty quickly debunked:

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/02/23/0310255/why-tesl...

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1073289_tesla-battery-br...

http://green.autoblog.com/2012/02/23/tesla-bricked-battery-s...

tokenadult• 14 years ago

An earlier (favorable) review of the Tesla Model S

http://blogs.wsj.com/drivers-seat/2012/07/06/review-tesla-mo...

also seems to have been based on a rather short test drive.

". . . . The car’s flat, floorpan-mounted battery pack (85 kWh) accounts for about 30% of the significant total vehicle weight, 4,642 pounds. And yet, with a C-of-G comparable to that of a Ford GT supercar, the Tesla corners like it’s tethered with magic. What do you call that?

. . . .

"Out on the street, suspended with the speed-adaptive air suspension, the Model S has an utterly unshakable, gantry-like vibe to it, even with the big meats in the wheel wells. And yet, given the constraints of our test drive, I can’t really describe the car’s handling. I’ll need at least three months to be sure."

wittekm• 14 years ago

Gearhead websites like Jalopnik and TTAC have taken Tesla to task for only providing extremely short press junkets to reviewers - assumably so nobody will ever get the thing down to empty and have something bad to say about it in their review. To me it shows a lack of confidence in their own product.

I personally hope the best for them, but to this day it remains to be seen if they can actually deliver the 50k Model S to a customer.

RobAtticus• 14 years ago

"but to this day it remains to be seen if they can actually deliver the 50k Model S to a customer"

I was under the impression that customers have been receiving the Model S for the last month. Not all reservations have been filled, but they have started filling them.

majormajor• 14 years ago

Am I the only one who's not impressed at all by the touchscreen-based interior of the Model S? I can find the button I want to hit/knob I want to twist to adjust the radio or AC by feel in my current car, so I don't have to look at it while driving.

Buttons are good! I'd like buttons with little screens on them so that they can always display their function in the current "mode," instead of having to be labeled with multiple things in cases like that, but I'm not seeing the benefit of going full touchscreen. On a phone or tablet it's extra screen space for displaying content—but I don't expect to be browsing the internet or looking at a photo slideshow on the center console of a car.

MartinCron• 14 years ago

I predict that touch interfaces in cars like this is a fad that will pass and people will look back on it as an embarrassment.

I'm patient, I can wait until Tesla figures it out with their 2nd or 3rd generation sedan.

Tesla Model S review: A good first impression

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