by Bruce Boyers
Sometime back, I did a feature article on the very first fully electric high-performance car—the Tesla Roadster (see Organic Connections, Sept–Oct 2008). It was quite an experience for a middle-aged man. While I couldn’t drive the car, I was able to see it up close—a sleek, low-to-the-ground vision of speed in gray and black—at the Los Angeles Tesla showroom. When Alex, the intern who was guiding me through the Roadster and its features, asked me if I wanted to climb in and sit in it, I gulped in disbelief and did so.
Although I did my best to act casually, I was secretly overwhelmed by midlife-crisis-type fantasy. The car literally enveloped me in its soft leather, from the backs of my knees all the way to the back of my head. I stretched my legs nearly straight out, the contoured controls only a short reach away, and in no time at all I was mentally flying down the highway in near silence under a blazing blue sky, catching the eye of every envious driver I left behind in a blur.
But realizing how much of a fool I must have looked, I quickly (and with some effort) pushed myself up and out again, cleared my throat and asked, “Are you planning on releasing a sedan anytime in the near future?”
For those of us at least trying to appear more sensible, or for anyone who wishes to own a vehicle that will transport more than one passenger (besides the driver) and perhaps have a normal amount of storage space, it was a valid question. Tesla had given us a breakthrough in coolness with the Roadster, putting to shame all the hybrids and other eco-friendly vehicles in terms of sheer sexy style. Now, would they be following up with a luxury sedan that would hold up next to our less environmentally friendly choices such as the BMW or Lexus?
My helpful and knowledgeable intern at Tesla advised me that, yes, there would be such a car, the Tesla S, ready for delivery in 2011.
Well, this car has now been officially announced—although it will actually hit the road in 2012—and it’s very obvious that Tesla has done it again. The Tesla S, the first mass-produced highway-capable electric car, very worthy of the Tesla name, accommodates seven (five adults with two rear-facing child seats) and is built with all the luxury appointments you would expect. In addition to a sculpted dash and ultra-comfortable seats, the designers of the S have done away with dashboard buttons through the inclusion of a 17-inch infotainment touchscreen that is fully 3G (mobile telecommunication technology) and Internet capable.
Because it is electric, the S has storage both in the rear and in the front of the car, making it quite travel-ready. With the back seats folded down, it will allow for a mountain bike with its wheels still on, a surfboard and a 50-inch television—all at the same time.
It’s a Tesla, though, and that’s where it truly leaves its internal-combustion forebears far behind. Three battery-pack options make for a 160-, 220- or 300-mile range and give this electric vehicle twice the power efficiency of hybrids. The Model S costs as little as $4 to fully charge—a bargain even when gasoline was $1 per gallon, let alone the $4 prices we’re seeing today—and it can be charged from any electrical outlet. You never stop for gas because, of course, the vehicle doesn’t require it. The single-speed gearbox delivers effortless acceleration and responsive handling with a minimum of effort; no gear-shifting, either automatic or manual, is required. It goes from zero to sixty in 5.6 seconds and has a top speed of 120 mph.
Click on any image above to see a larger version.
With a 45-minute QuickCharge or a 5-minute battery swap, you could exceed the 300-mile range; you could actually drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco, Washington to New York, or take even longer road trips in about the same time as in a conventional car. Tesla is also working with a government-affiliated partner to set up battery-changing stations at various locations—good news for current owners of the Roadster, who can currently travel only 220 miles on a charge.
As with the Roadster, much of what makes this car interesting is what you don’t see. The S is powered by 8,000 floor-mounted, liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery cells, and as my friend Alex explained to me at the Tesla showroom on my earlier visit, the choice of lithium-ion batteries for the Tesla was quite deliberate. “Traditional car batteries are not nearly efficient enough to provide the performance we need,” he said. “You basically have three different levels of battery: the lead-acid kind you find in your average car, the more efficient prismatic NiMH battery such as that found in the Toyota Prius hybrid vehicle, and the lithium-ion batteries we’re using. The lithium-ion battery is many times more efficient than the prismatic battery, its closest competitor.” These are the same type of batteries that power laptop computers.
The battery pack is cooled by a system utilizing the coolant employed in internal-combustion vehicles, and the car’s computer system continuously tracks battery history, performance and available energy.
Pricewise, the Tesla S will start at $49,900—giving it another edge of practicality over the Roadster, which is more than double that cost. You can reserve the car for $5,000, and 75 percent of the financing can now be accomplished through Bank of America.
So, thankfully, a guy like me can still have an extremely environmentally friendly vehicle that’s ultra-cool without all his friends thinking he’s in some kind of age denial.
But, hey, I can still dream, can’t I?
For more on the Tesla S, visit the Tesla Motors website at www.teslamotors.com.
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