Tesla Model S Review

Tesla Model S

31st May 2015: We reached our hotel in Egerkingen, Switzerland at around 6:30 PM. It was still quite bright, as the sun sets at 9:30 pm. As soon as I entered the hotel, I saw a huge gold plated board and written on it in huge emboldened text was “TESLA SUPERCHARGER #52”.

I had only heard about Tesla Superchargers from my friends and from what I saw on the internet. They can charge up a Tesla car in a very short span of time. I said to myself that I have to find out where the actual supercharger is. After keeping all the luggage in our room, I came back downstairs with my dad. He was talking to the receptionist about the extra bed, so I headed outside to begin my search, which lasted only about two minutes. I found not one, not two but six superchargers! The red TESLA neon sign shining on all of them with equal intensities. About 10 minutes later, a black Tesla Model S entered the parking lot. It looked straight out of a high-budget futuristic movie, with its glittering xenon lights, black rims and that perfect body design. The owner reversed it into the charging port and docked his car. I needed to somehow start a conversation with this guy. I hadn’t the slightest idea about who he was or even whether he spoke English, but regardless, I went up to him as asked out of the blue “This is the Tesla Model S, isn’t it?” He nodded. Unable to hold my excitement in, I blurted out about how big a car enthusiast I was and how perfect the Tesla Model S was and how it was the very best car that Tesla’s ever made. A second after I said that, I realized Tesla has made only one car apart from the Model S, i.e. The Roadster.

Tesla charger

The owner was a tall white guy, seemed to be pretty friendly. He spoke English well, but he took some time to frame the sentences and to think of the right word to describe something. He told me that the only Tesla to be built before this was The Roadster. I totally forgot to click some pictures of the car from the outside, as I was too engrossed in talking to him. I inquired how much time it takes to charge the car fully. He told me, they never charge the battery to 100% but for a good enough charge it takes around 30 to 35 minutes. I was surprised that a car as big as that took such less time to charge, whereas, in India it takes around 5-6 hours to charge small electric cars like the Mahindra Reva. The surprises didn’t end there. I was looking at the interiors and I asked him if I could take a few pictures of the interior. He said ‘Yes please, take a seat!’ and went sat down in the passenger’s seat. I was shocked! I was about to sit in the driver’s seat of the world’s most advanced fully electric car.

I opened the door and entered Seventh Heaven. The smell and the feel was giving me such a rush! I closed the door with the utmost tenderness out of sheer respect. In fact, it didn’t close in the first time, I was so slow, so I had to do it twice. I had a hundred questions in my mind, I was thinking which one I should ask first. I asked him how much distance the car can cover in a good enough charge. Voila, surprise no.2 or 3 maybe (I had lost the count) it can cover around 380-400 kilometers in one charge!

 

After bombarding him excitedly with many more questions, he offered me to take the car for a test drive. On the outside I maintained a calm smiling face but on the inside my mind was shooting rainbows! I saw that his name was written on his car’s huge touchscreen panel “David”. David was explaining to me the inner workings of the car. Then, I asked him about the superchargers and if they were difficult to find. He said that there were more than a hundred of them sprawled all across Europe and showed me the location of each and every one of them on the GPS. One supercharger is at the most 150 kilometers away from another one. Now I arrived at the most important question of all : the price of this magnanimous work of art. ‘ A hundred thousand euros’, he said nonchalantly.

He showed me the reverse parking camera! It was unlike any other I had seen before, because it even tells you how much space your car will cover after you have finished the turn (trajectory lines). My eyes went onto the rear seat, and I noticed that it was pretty spacious; and because it doesn’t have a transmission axle, the floor of the car was completely flat and there was space to keep a lot of stuff. I asked him how old this car was. It was just 2 weeks old and very proudly he showed me that he had covered 5200 kilometers in just 2 weeks. He told me about some road trips he had taken with his friends. All this time I was sitting on the driver’s seat. The charging bar was filling up pretty quick and I started thinking, what if he tells me to drive? When he said that we will take it for a spin, did he mean that he was handing over the wheel to me? I immediately dismissed such wild fantasies. After some more talking and explaining all the tech, David said, “Okay, now the battery is ready, so let us go. And for insurance issues, I will drive”. I gave him a broad grin and said “Absolutely”. I had totally forgotten to ask him the power output of the car. He later said that it was 420 HP, which was an absolute shocker! A fully ELECTRIC car, producing 420 HP? Plus, it was four wheel drive and an automatic! I didn’t crib about the fact of it being an automatic as there is no point of a manual transmission in an electric car. Okay, so now I was ready for the ride of a lifetime, in the world’s most futuristic and technologically advanced electric car, a 420 HP, AWD Tesla Model S. What a day! He warned me to tell him if he was going too fast. I thought that won’t be required, but all I can say now,looking back is that I’d never been so wrong in my life .The car rolled out smoothly, like an ocean liner leaving from port. There was absolutely no noise. I earlier saw that, he was listening to Michael Jackson songs. When he was explaining me the instruments, he told the car “Play Eminem”. The voice recognition was pretty good. I asked him if there was any way you can play your mobile songs on the stereo? He told, me that the car has its own Wi-Fi network, if you connect your phone to that network then you can sync your phone to the car’s system. So, now we are in the car and the engine was on. David swiped some kind of parking card on a machine and now we got out of the parking lot.  The car was making an electronic beeping noise. Soon, I realized that I hadn’t put on my seatbelt. I was a bit embarrassed as I always wear a seatbelt while sitting in a car. It was getting a bit dark and I was so thrilled, being in the most futuristic car with a stranger in a strange place like Switzerland.

He hit the throttle hard and I was completely thrown back into my seat. I didn’t know what 420 HP felt like! I was not expecting such speed and such quick acceleration! Then, as we crossed the curvy road and came a bit far from our hotel, he turned the car towards a long straight road. There was one car coming behind us, he let it pass and set up the car’s launch control! Yes, LAUNCH CONTROL! This time, I was ready for it. He said, “Let us hope that there is no police around here”. We laughed,and he totally punched down the throttle, and within a matter of 5-6 seconds the car hit 110 kmph. I was stuck to my seat and couldn’t move my back! He brought down the speed to 80 kmph saying there is a speed limit! Anyways, it isn’t safe to drive at higher speeds on hilly roads and moreover it was night time. He turned the car 270 degrees and now we have to take a left to go back to our hotel. He said, “Let me show you how stable this car is”, saying this he hit the throttle and turned the wheel sharply at the same time! The car skidded a little bit but soon moved forward! He told it is very easy to drive this car on the snow as it was a four wheel drive.  I asked him, what was the maximum speed he has taken it to. He said ‘242 kmph!’ I was having a hard time imagining that much speed. We reached the hotel soon. I asked him about Top Gear, I was happy to know that he had at least heard about it. He said, “Yes, they are crazy people”, jokingly. He parked the car and then we started off on the topic that electric cars lack the feel which is provided by a petrol engine. He told “Yes, I also used to think so, but after driving this car on the highway, overtaking all the vehicles on the road with such ease, I don’t think this is any less on the feel factor” . I couldn’t agree with him any more. He told me, earlier he had a Dodge pickup truck with a 5.8 liter V8 engine! Before that he had a Nissan Leaf. So he knew the best of both worlds. The highly powered one and the under-powered one. I told him that I am studying engineering and my dream job is to join an automobile company. He told me to join Tesla but not to join German companies like Mercedes. When I asked him why, he told me because Tesla is the future, they are passionate about science and are finding more and more ways to incorporate it into their cars whereas Mercedes and other big brands have become mere businessmen, who just focus on marketing strategies to sell their products. I really liked his outlook. I asked him where he works. He told me he works in an IT company in Switzerland. I told with a grin that I am also studying IT. He then asked me a few things about India, especially about the education system and he also praised my English. I told him “You also speak pretty good English”. At home he speaks German and at office English is spoken.

After we got back, I thanked him profusely. Getting out of the car and back to normal felt like going through a hangover after the roughest night of partying. I was so satisfied and happy on finding such a nice stranger, a person who is passionate about cars and is living life the way it should be lived.

It was a good day indeed.

Rongon Chatterjee 

 

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