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Thursday April 30, 2009
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It's a time-honored formula: a sports sedan in the $50,000 range that can hit 60 mph in less than six seconds is a sweet spot for automakers. The BMW 5 Series, the Mercedes E Class, the Lexus GS430, and the Acura RL all play in this range, for example. But none of them are particularly green vehicles. Usually they struggle to average 20 miles per gallon, especially when a lot of city driving is involved.
If we're talking about an all-electric car like the Tesla Model S, though, that changes things. And as we found out last night at a private company event held in NYC (pictured), the car really works--even if its scheduled production date, some two and a half years away, seems frustratingly remote.
For the uninitiated, here's the back story: The 2012 Tesla Model S
will be the American startup automaker's second car after the Tesla Roadster.
The Model S is a plug-in electric vehicle like the Roadster, but it
will cost just $49,900 (after federal tax credit). That's less than
half of the $109,000 that Tesla charges for the two-seater. That's also
assuming that the company can hold the line on pricing, which is a big
if (more on that later). Tesla plans to build 20,000 in the first year,
a huge jump over the thousand-odd Roadsters the company will have
produced by the end of 2009.
Still, some may complain--as they
first did with the Roadster--that the Model S will be another expensive
toy that won't do much for the environment in such limited numbers. But
they're missing the point. The same complaint that can be levied
against all new automotive technologies, including the
limited-production Honda FCX Clarity, the (hopefully) upcoming Chevy Volt, or any car with pricing north of a mainstream Toyota Prius or Honda Insight.
Keep
in mind that there are two things at work here. First, there's a market
for luxury cars in this price range. According to those buyers, the
Model S could be a real deal given its style, amenities, and
performance. The other thing is that as automakers begin to produce
these cars en masse, they'll develop ways to bring the price point down
further into the mainstream, much as how even garden-variety Honda
Civics and Mazda 3s offer navigation systems and Bluetooth options that
used to be the province of Lexus and Mercedes.
Getting back to
the Model S, Tesla plans to sell the car with three battery pack
choices. Each one will be more expensive than the last, with ranges of
165, 230, and 300 miles, respectively. Performance-wise, Tesla claims a
0-60 time of 5.6 seconds and top speed of 125 mph for the Model S. The
company also specifies that the car will have the (somewhat dubious,
given the low roofline) ability to seat seven passengers. In addition,
the company already has over 700 pre-orders as of April 13th.
I'm
pleased to report that if those customers get the same car I went for a
ride in last night, they'll be thrilled with their purchase--assuming
the company holds true to its other promises as well.
From the
outside, no one will call the Model S pedestrian. Seeing one up close
shows just how striking the car's sensuous lines are. The Aston Martin
and Jaguar influence was unmistakable. If you squint, the Model S could
also be a large Dodge sedan, or maybe what the elegant,
final-generation Mazda 929
would have looked like today if it were still around. Either way, it's
a very sharp looking car. That was true even under the brutal
fluorescent lighting found in an indoor parking lot at Chelsea Piers by
the Hudson River in Manhattan--Tesla's little secret proving ground for
a night.
Inside, the 17-inch display in the center console
dominates the view. It's almost double the size of just about every
other navigation system screen on the market. The flagship BMW 7 Series,
for example, was just redesigned for 2009 and starts at $80,300, but
even that car sports a 10.2-inch LCD. In Tesla's case, the expansive
screen displays a large Google Maps-style road view, plus numerous
controls underneath toward the bottom of the display for ventilation,
the stereo, and probably a Windows 7 console window if the company
wanted. At launch time, the car will come preloaded with Google Maps,
Pandora Radio, and full cellular broadband access.
Beyond
that, there was plenty of room for four. However, I have my doubts
about the seven-passenger bit. The fold-down seat looks to provide
expansive storage and a flat load floor. I don't doubt Tesla's claim
that you can fit a 50-inch plasma TV in there, although you'll only be
able to carry one passenger at the same time. But given the car's
swoopy roofline, any people riding in the third, rear-facing rumble
seat should probably be somewhere south of nine years old--and a person
relegated to the middle of the rear bench should also be of similar
stature, at the very least.
But what's the thing like to ride
in? Keep in mind that this was a quick--though flat-out--ride around a
parking lot, so there is only so much we could decipher. At idle, the
car is almost dead silent, as to be expected of an electric vehicle. It
seemed to have a pretty wide turning circle, but it's also a fairly big
car, so that was also unsurprising.
Based on a seat-of-the-pants
evaluation, the manufacturer's quoted 5.6-second 0-60 time is credible.
Think BMW 335d monster torque and steamroller delivery off the line,
more than Maserati high-end surge. There's no question the Model S is
fast. Plus, my ride was after over an hour of delivering similar
gut-wrenching maneuvers in front of the press pool by various
employees. The old, dreaded fear common to electric-powered
vehicles--that performance will deteriorate as the battery depletes,
rather than staying at 100 percent all the way to the end--seems to be
MIA, at least in this example.
For comparison purposes (of
course), I also went for a ride in a candy-apple-red production Tesla
Roadster. While the Model S feels like a proper near-luxury sedan--maybe
something Acura or maybe Jaguar would produce if they suddenly
developed a fetish for incredibly large LCD panels--the Tesla Roadster
is an all-out sports car due to its Lotus Elise-inspired underpinnings.
Here's
one big clue the Roadster is a purebred: I fell in it. Vaulting my leg over the almost-a-foot-tall floor sill brought me back
to hard-riding 1980s Corvettes in a flash. Then I landed in the
seat with a thump hard enough to take the wind out of me momentarily. Once inside--and recovering--I was basically sitting on the
pavement, looking out over the fenders in a Formula Vee racecar view of
the road. If you have a passenger, I hope you like her--she'll be very
close, indeed.
At speed, the Model S sedan was quick, with
addictive thrust and near-silent operation. The Roadster, on the other
hand, was brutal. That's actually the wrong word for it, because the
car is so quiet--like an overgrown R/C car in terms of sound, especially
with its two-speed, CVT-style acceleration. Yet when you stab on the go
pedal, the car pins you to the passenger seat and holds you there.
There's no sitting up in defiance of the immense thrust. 3.8 seconds to
60 mph will do that sort of thing to you.
Tesla has hit numerous
snags over the past several years, including several CEO changes,
problems with early transmissions, and pricing changes even for
customers who already put down a deposit. But if these two cars are any
indication, the company's outlook is bright.
If Tesla can
continue to pump out Roadsters, bring the Model S to a production line
virtually as is, and not play any more games with customer deposits and
pricing adjustments, they could revolutionize the auto industry. That
last point is key, given the pricing kerfuffle Tesla foisted on its
customers with the Roadster. And if you ask us, the Model S's projected
base price of $57,400 (minus the $7,500 tax credit) sounds awfully
optimistic for a car of this caliber.
Even so, these aren't just
vehicles for green tech fans, as if they were soft-riding Prius-copies
with more horsepower and a recycling icon on the rear fender. While
I'll reserve judgment on the Model S's handling prowess for once I get
behind the wheel, the car is the real deal. Any auto enthusiast worth
his blood and Bullit fetish could get addicted to either Tesla in a
flash--and that's without using a single drop of gasoline or diesel. If
this is the alternative-fueled future, sign me up.
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May 1, 2009 9:09 PM
Nice report, wishe i coud have been in that event to tray my future car...its going to be a long time waiting for it
Portugal / Europe
May 5, 2009 3:32 AM
Good article but you should know that all Tesla Roadsters from number 50 onwards, now have a single speed transmission.
August 3, 2009 9:21 PM
Can you actually go anywhere in these cars?
If so, how far and at what avg. speed?
@30kph..........kilometers?
@50kph..........kilometers?
@200kph.........kilometers?
After all, that's the raison d'etre of an Auto!!