Gadgetory

now Tesla has the rather unenviable task of scaling not one but two automotive mountains number one get folks used to a completely new kind of car number two get them warmed up to a completely new brand of car where do you do that send them down to the car dealer people hate going to the car dealers instead you intercept them where they already are here at the mall and when they go inside they get introduced to a car that does things almost completely differently than what they're used to now here's the model a says you'll see it on the freeway but this is not the most interesting part of the story to me over here is naked versions this is this mattress size thing I'm kneeling on is the battery a huge amount of lithium-ion cells put together in a way that is carefully cooled carefully monitored and delivering a lot of power forty sixty or eighty five kilowatt hours are the capacity ranges here depending which model you buy now what happens after those electrons flow out of here is also part of the secret sauce they go into this big canister shaped thing which is called an inverter an inverter converts the DC the direct current that is stored in that battery into the AC the alternating current which this motor wants that motor then spins through this one speed gearbox you don't shift anything this is a reduction gear it turns the very high rpms of this motor into more usable rpms out to the axles and the road wheels the way this battery and inverter are designed is a key part of what Tesla is doing power and range is a complicated business on a Tesla the base power train Model S has 362 horsepower 325 foot-pounds of torque gets to 60 in six and a half seconds the performance cars have four hundred and sixteen horsepower and 443 foot-pounds of torque and they do 60 in 4.4 seconds they're seriously fast the major difference between the two is the throughput of the inverter which sits between the battery and the motor range on either car is governed by the battery size the 40 kilowatt hour battery gets you about a hundred and sixty miles at best for ten thousand more you can get the 60 kilowatt hour battery 230 miles optimal and for ten thousand on top of that the 85 kilowatt battery 300 miles under a best-case now the Model S is a three row seven passenger car it's kind of a sedan UV front row two seats little less Headroom and I'd like coming back into the second row you've got basically a sporty bench three more people there then work your way back here to me in the rear compartment this car is optioned up with the dual rear facing seats but notice these are like little kid racing seats with five-point harnesses okay first of all this is what you've heard about the giant 17-inch central LCD that is the heart of this cars cabin across the top you've got a static ribbon very much like you have on a lot of mobile devices if I go to media I get my media choices they show up down here am/fm HD radio XM satellite you've also got two supported streaming services now tune in and slacker it's all software they can add many more but right now those are your choices on streaming notice how everything here is popping into a contextually relevant screen as I hit it for example here are my tone controls and the kind of data and interface you get here you just don't see in any other car notice the nav that's Google Maps it's also where your navigation takes place although I should point out an important distinction the mapping is Google Maps the navigation technology is garment this is not yet using Google turn-by-turn navigation now Tesla promises voice to destination in 2013 for now you can just enter stuff on the screen even when the cars moving a cheeky approach but they hope you'll have the passenger do it actually that also applies even more unusually to the web browser first of all it's unusual to get a big web browser in a car unusual hell it's unheard of and to have this thing work while the car is moving is also very Silicon Valley camera is interesting another one of these places where Tesla's kind of breaking Convention here's my rear camera I'm not in Reverse and if I start driving this camera can stay on another interesting wrinkle you could have a standard def camera or in this case we have the high def camera look at that resolution what they have in resolution they do not have in around view cameras or multiple angle rear view cameras now more broadly here in the cabin what's it like to sit in a Model S obviously it's a very modern feeling because you're not showered with a lot of buttons the screen takes that of course I also know this interesting thing here Tesla doesn't make every single part of their car they've gone to the Mercedes parts bin to get things like the cruise control the turn signals and wipers and the gearshift selector up here if you got to go buy buy from the best now wireless keys are nothing new in this day and age even fancy ones but this one goes to the level of cute to unlock or lock the car you press on the roof to unlock or lock the front trunk or front you press on it same thing goes for the rear now driving a Model S is first and foremost a matter of driving an electric car so everything you know about cars goes out the window but what I can tell you that this car does a little differently than others is it feels quick and quiet which to me is a way of saying it feels lightweight it also is exceptionally quiet I don't hear any of the motor or gear whine that I've heard in other electric cars not at low speed not in high speed not under braking and not under full acceleration you never get used to that about electric cars either at least not yet now I don't have the car long enough to give you any real-world experience with charge and discharge behavior based on my driving and any of that I basically had a day and change with the vehicle so we'll get our full review and really dig into that later this is really a finished car and that's kind of the highest compliment you can give a company that wasn't making cars at all a handful of years ago okay the bottom line on the Tesla Model S about 51,000 with destination charge now I know what you're saying wait a minute Puppis cars began closer to 60 well I'm - thing out the $7,500 US federal tax credit which most everybody is going to qualify for unless you're dead poor and if you are you probably not buying one of these now the pricing also goes up 10,000 more for the mid-size battery and 10,000 more for the big boy battery and yes like popcorn at the movies your best value is to buy the big one now we had the performance car that's 15,000 more which brings you of course the high-performance inverter it's got a big battery much better performance adaptive air suspension and a way fancier interior you also get a look at the tech package 3750 puts navigation in that big screen that is not standard but nothing will influence people's purchase consideration of this electric vehicle as much as their conception of all electric vehicles that's the big mindset that people are really trying to get their heads around and Tesla has only so much control over that