Battery technology breakthrough

[White Exec]

Nice photo... Would like to read your article, but can't get in...

[dollywobbler]

Duh! My mistake. Should be ok now.

[Dieselman]

My thoughts from August.

I've been interested in the Tesla-S for a while and having seen the one at the Westfield centre fancied a proper look at one.

My recollection was the interior was OK, but the centre console was a bit downmarket as it was more a tray along the floor, the dashboard didn't look particularly special in the stripey wood finish and the seats need adjustable head restraints for them to be high enough for me.

Tonight I've seen a blue one and a metallic white one. The blue one still had the stripey wood, but the white one had piano black, which makes the dashboard look stunning.
The centre console is fine as it is trimmed in leather, being Mercedes items, the seats are very comfortable generally, but the headrest does need to be adjustable, for me.
The driving controls are Mercedes items and the sitting position is very comfortable and straight to the pedals and wheel...easy to do as there is no engine up front.

Then came the bit I really wanted...a drive.

What an experience...honestly, the car is quieter and more serene than any S class, but rides and handles very well.
The torque is incredible, the first pulling out onto a busy roundabout is breathtaking as the car jumps forwards, after which you acclimatise to how sensitive the accelerator is.
This is the first car I've tested where you relish stopping at traffic lights just so you can show EVERYTHING else just how slow they really are...let other cars pull away accelerating, then just pass them quickly...in near silence...
I didn't once press the accelerator to the floor, but did manage to break traction coming off roundabouts.

I can definitely see an electric car, probably a Tesla-S, sitting on my drive sometime.

It looks stunning in the flesh, much better than any photo's.

[dollywobbler]

Odd that you found the Tesla comfortable. I really didn't. The seats were rock hard and the suspension seemed to have very little give in it. More surprising as you also seem to have been in a P85, which is what I drove.

What also impressed was how little I had to brake. The regen is very strong.

[captainhaddock]

Really nice and good looking car, that Tesla. Astonishing that find no comfortable seats in such a car but I should be hard considering it has so much power?

[Dieselman]

The seats are softer than my Merc C Coupe and riding on air, I found the Tesla to be very smooth. I drove a P85+, which was definitely on air, was yours steel sprung?

Mercedes seats are often hard feeling due to using coconut fibre as the support padding, but normally the outer layer is padded and soft. The C Coupe ones are just hard. My old E class had firm seats, but you could spend all day in them and not have any aches or pains.


Back to the Tesla, I do find the headrest too low, but apparently the new seats have higher backrest and headrest positioning.

[White Exec]

The more reviews and footage I see about the Tesla S and the company, the more I have to admire what they have done. Obviously a mission not only to make a significant step in the necessary advance of all-electric vehicles, but choosing to do it in a way which shouts ability and performance loudly from the rooftops.

In a way, choosing to enter the market - brave in itself and not without its dangers and opponents - at the luxury end was an unexpected move, and they have been unique in doing this. Clever, though, because they have secured for themselves a number of advantages: customers who are committed to the product (by the sheer high cost price), a relatively small customer base (no need to produce the cars in massive numbers, running the risk of massive recalls, and to allow R&D to get tweaks and developments out on to the road at a manageable rate).

But cleverest of all has been their decision to produce a product, here and now, of excellence - a product that amazes and stuns, and that (well-heeled) folk will want to buy. It's also made everyone (who knows about it) sit up and re-think their ideas about some earlier all-electric vehicles, with thoughts of milk-floats, ugly single-seater city vehicles, and near-unusable range. Rather like the compact cassette appearing, to be suddenly challenged by the compact disc! Tesla has set a standard, and there will be no going back.

They've also done their best to set in motion a global trickle-down of battery technology, by setting up partnerships with dozens of global partners to manufacture, under licence, Tesla batteries and components. There are vast numbers of Chinese factories making all-electric vehicles (their need to clean up urban environments is urgent), and Tesla batteries have become the default for many of them. A web search for electric cars/China will likely surprise you, and come as a bit of a shock for the view that the Chinese can only imitate and copy our prized UK technology.

Nissan-Renault have, I think, been brave too (with Tesla's help), in producing a range of small and medium sized cars (and vans) that ordinary folk might be able to afford. Other established vehicle manufacturers have begun as well, not least because some (US) legislation is forcing them to have such vehicles in their range, if they want to continue to sell combustion vehicles.

Cars we individually cannot afford have always been a mainstay of pub and magazine and now web chatter, not to mention T*p G**r. With Tesla, the media are now, slowly, having to pull back on their rubbishing rhetoric and fascination with irrelevant Hybrids (encouraged and maybe indirectly paid for by Big Oil), and in doing so the tone of the chatter is slowly but surely changing. A new leaf (!) is being turned.

I really think we're going to see some technical breakthroughs and developments quite quickly now: better, smaller, more quickly rechargeable batteries, inductive charging (charge-as-you park, or drive - now that would have pleased Nikolai Tesla), and a shift in favour of electric transport in cities. The price will fall...just not yet. Remember the CD and the colour tv?

[dollywobbler]

The seats are softer than my Merc C Coupe and riding on air, I found the Tesla to be very smooth. I drove a P85+, which was definitely on air, was yours steel sprung?

Mine was also a P85+ having double-checked. List price of £99k! Options included the performance leather seats, which had no give in them at all. My video review will be uploading soon.

[russ92xmsed]

Very interesting reading your review Will. I have to say it is a very appealing car. It's a very attractive design. I saw a dark blue one just like the one in your photos the other day whilst in Northumberland. Very striking day time running lights!
My only grip with it, and this is based on pictures only, I think the interior could be a bit more daring. And the touch screen integrated a little more successfully. But really very impressive car and company.

[Dieselman]

They've also done their best to set in motion a global trickle-down of battery technology, by setting up partnerships with dozens of global partners to manufacture, under licence, Tesla batteries and components. There are vast numbers of Chinese factories making all-electric vehicles (their need to clean up urban environments is urgent), and Tesla batteries have become the default for many of them. A web search for electric cars/China will likely surprise you, and come as a bit of a shock for the view that the Chinese can only imitate and copy our prized UK technology.

Nissan-Renault have, I think, been brave too (with Tesla's help), in producing a range of small and medium sized cars (and vans) that ordinary folk might be able to afford. Other established vehicle manufacturers have begun as well, not least because some (US) legislation is forcing them to have such vehicles in their range, if they want to continue to sell combustion vehicles.

^ Snip.

not forgetting the new Mercedes B class Electric is a Tesla development.