I’ve just finished reading the article by The Verge on their 382 mile journey from LA to San Francisco with the Tesla Model S Prototype car and it really interested me that this is the first all-electric car that really shows the potential and the future of the automobile world. Everybody’s heard of the Toyota Prius plug-in which is a gas/electric hybrid which combines a conventional internal combustion engine propulsion system with an electric propulsion system. This means that the Prius can accelerate to speeds of 15mph before having to kick in the combustion engine, which in real life doesn’t seem like much use unless you live in largely dense cities where you never really go above that speed limit. The Prius does require a charge to allow for these low-speed all-electric journeys, but obviously won’t require as much charge as the Tesla. The Tesla Model S is an all-electric car that really looks like the future of cars with 17” touch-screens, no keys and no start/stop buttons, key-fobs that retract the door handles and other technologies that have all been theories up until now.
Now I’m going to start off by saying that I’m NOT the biggest car nerd, I don’t know what a lot of terms mean in the car world, but I know the basics of what makes a car fast, practical and all-round a nice car to drive and own. I myself am an 18 year old teenager who’s never driven anything other than a 2002 VW Polo 1.0 petrol and a 1.2 2013 Renault Clio Diesel (the car I learnt to drive in.) Therefore, this article shall be opinion-based and highly theoretical-based as well. So as they say “don’t quote me on that!”
The Tesla Model S comes in a four figurations according to their website (not including all the extra add-ons, colour choices and other stuff you can alter). There are three versions of the base Tesla Model S 40kWh, 60kWh and the 85kWh models; then you have the Model S Performance which is also 85kWh but Includes upgraded drivetrain, interior and suspension. The simple idea here is that the more you pay, the faster your car goes, the more customisation you get, the further the car travels and the longer your warranty basically. In terms of speed, the lowest end model will go 0-60 in 6.5 seconds reaching speeds of 110mph and the Model S Performance does 0-60 in 4.4 seconds reaching speeds of 130mph which is incredible acceleration for a car that’s not truly touted as a ‘super-car’. The cheapest model will set you back around $52,400 (theoretically £34,900) and you can spend up to around $103,000 (theoretically £68,600) once you’ve customised the Model S Performance with the full kit.
The Tesla Model S has some futuristic aspects to it’s exterior AND it’s interior that I believe make this car stand out from the likes of the Prius and the Leaf and all these other eco-friendly cars right now. The first feature I want to talk about is the automatic door handles that really are incredibly futuristic, this is the sort of thing we’d have seen on spaceships and floating cars in the 1990s films. What I’m talking about starts with the fact that the car has no key and as a result, no keyhole and so the car keys are just a black fob shaped like the car, that when you get close enough to car causes the doors’ handles to automatically retract from being plush with the door itself. In addition, when pulling on the car door, there is no longer an actual pull mechanism, it simply detects fingers and causes an electric board somewhere to release the door from it’s locked state. My brother said that this could cause problems in terms of robberies in that when you get close enough to the car, someone could quickly run and jump in and drive off. However, I told him that the exact same could be done today with electric wireless locks we have on keys that allow us to unlock the car from a fair distance, yet realistically, this never happens.
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| Keyfob |
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| Doorhandle |
The other feature that the car has that will cause a number of long conversations about safety concerns and the like is the 17” touchscreen monitor you have planted in the middle that replaces all controls for temperature, radio, etc. Now, they’ve thought about the problems when it comes to the fact that at the moment you can almost memorise where your controls are without taking your eyes off the road and they’ve left the basics such as music control and temperature in the same place, no matter what app you’re in so you always know where to place your fingers to alter these controls. You can drag separate apps into two halves of the screen to allow for music control AND maps or web browsing AND maps (yes, this thing has a browser.) Obviously, the big concern is distraction with a large screen like this, my dad turns his sat-nav’s screen off when he’s driving at night as he says it causes him distraction. His sat-nav only has a 5” screen, imagine THIS for him. What distracts him is the large beam of light radiating in the corner of his eyes causing his vision of the road to be impaired slightly; I believe that this screen does automatically darken with an ambient light sensor, which should eradicate this problem, but there’ll still be some who moan. The other distraction worry is that if the thing you’re trying to alter isn’t temperature or music, then unless you’re parked or at a red light, there’s some serious safety concerns. But hopefully people will use their common sense as around 80% of drivers do now and not try to alter anything whilst on the move.
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| 17" Touchscreen |
Let’s quickly talk about some of the advantages and disadvantages of having an electric car in the modern world we live in today. A disadvantage of electric cars today is by far the most obvious: there aren’t enough charging stations to keep drivers from feeling ‘range anxiety’ which is the feeling that you may not make it to the next charger before you run out of power. Another disadvantage in the current world is that these chargers can take up to 12 hours to fully charge the car which requires you to either leave it out overnight or use an alternative car during the day whilst it charges. However, these two problems are at the forefront of Tesla’s ambitious dream to make all-electric cars the thing of the present and not the future. Tesla hope to build 100 more of their Supercharger stations by the year 2015; currently there are only 8: 6 dotted across the West Coast in California and two near Boston and New York on the East Coast. These Superchargers can apparently fully charge your car in roughly an hour, which would be INCREDIBLE for car drivers. Unfortunately there a couple of problems Tesla have created, these stations only work with the Tesla-specific connection and so other cars can’t use them (however, I assume if they do become big, car manufacturers will build adapters)
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| SuperCharger Charging Port |
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| SuperCharger Station |
The pros of electric cars far outweigh the cons also which is why it’s almost inevitable that they and new hydrogen cars will become the norm within the next 30 years. The obvious and biggest reason that manufacturers are working on making all-electric cars popular is due to the fact they produce no pollution which is a massive bonus. Even the stations they charge from get their power from solar panels and as a result, it is free to charge up from them as no one OWNS the sun. There are two advantages of electric power over the disadvantages, and as we can see, Tesla are working on making those disadvantages not a worry to the average consumer.
However, in a world where 99% of the cars on the road use petrol or diesel, how will electric chargers be incorporated into these? Will petrol/diesel stations slowly get closed down or will they simply add an extension to each pod to incorporate the electric mains? We are currently at the start of what I believe to be a transformation in the automobile business and I really hope that in 30-40 years time when 99% of the roads on the car are electric and hydrogen-powered that Tesla get the credit for starting the revolution once again.
I actually visited the Tesla Model S website on http://www.teslamotors.com/models and went ahead and cheekily designed my own Tesla Model S in the configuration I’d have it if I had limitless money. Below is the additional specs that I’ve added on and the final images of what my baby would look like. Remember, this is purely hypothetical. I’m an 18 year old man. In no way could I afford something like this.
But my god, it is beautiful isn’t it?
Chosen configuration:
- Model S Performance Model in Solid White
- Black Roof
- Carbon Fiber Spoiler
- 21” Grey Wheels
- Black Performance Interior
- Piano Black Décor
- 85 kWh Battery
- ‘Tech Package’ which includes:
- Xenon Lights
- Electrhromatic side mirrors
- LED cornering lights
- Convenience lighting
- Power rear liftgate
- Turn-by-turn navigation with seven years of free map updates
- Automatic Keyless entry
- High definition back-up camera
- Homelink
- ‘Sound Studio Package’ which includes:
- 580 watt, 12 speaker Dolby ProLogic 7.1 system
- Storage space for over 3,000 songs
- XM Satellite Radio preparation
- Active Air Suspension
- Supercharging
If that isn’t a beautiful set up, I don’t know what is. Yes, I’ve included A LOT of things you don’t really need, but as I mentioned before, this is my dream version of the car and will likely NEVER actually be purchased. I’ve included some pictures below of what it would look like also, so blaze in it’s glory!
Would you be inclined to spend so much money to save the world? Do you think that electric cars aren’t ready yet? What do you think of Tesla’s attempt to revolutionise the all-electric car.
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