Tesla Model S review

There’s no denying the Tesla Model S is a mightily impressive achievement, and from a company whose only previous credit was a Lotus Elise-based roadster. A huge, useable range, decent handling, stunning acceleration and plenty of tech make it one of the most appealing EVs in the world, one that almost single-handedly forced mainstream manufacturers to embrace electricity before they were ready to. What a pity it’s no longer sold in right-hand drive countries. C’mon Tesla, we want the Model S back.

Continue reading: Driving

Driving

What is it like to drive?

Driving an electric car is always a serene experience. The lack of noise from the drivetrain – except for a bit of whine from the e-motors – is unsettling at first, with only wind- and tyre-roar to keep your ears company. Thankfully in the Model S these are both pretty well suppressed.

Is it comfortable?

Yes, on the whole. The seats are very supportive, and the ride smooth enough on the standard height-adjustable air suspension, making the Model S good over long distances.

It’s good in town too – a bit of practice and you’ll be using the retardation when you lift off the accelerator (which regenerates energy back to the batteries) for most of your braking. Just watch the size – this is an American car after all, so it feels very wide on narrow city streets.

What about country lanes?

These are a bit tight too. But find a wide one and the Model S reveals itself to be a decent drive. Because they’ve kept the weight low it stays pretty flat, and while there’s little feel to the steering, it’s accurate and quick enough to make the S feel pretty agile, especially given the size of the thing.

What’s this ‘yoke’ word I keep hearing?

Ah yes, thought you’d mention that. The latest update for the Model S did away with the conventional, round steering wheel and replaced it with an F1-style, aircraft-inspired yoke… thing. Having tried it we reckon the yoke is best avoided, and in markets where the Model S remains on sale you now have to pay to option it over a normal steering wheel. Save your cash.

Righteo. And Autopilot, what does that do?

Autopilot is Tesla’s suite of semi-autonomous driving assistance tech. It’s a pricey option, but probably worth having if you spend a lot of your time on motorways. Like systems from Merc, Audi, etc, when activated it handles the braking/accelerating and gives steering assistance. Another YouTube search will show you lots of videos of this being unwisely used.

Don’t get drawn in by the name or any references to ‘Full Self-Driving’. In the UK and Europe you need to keep your hands on the wheel at all times. Unless you’ve parked up for the night. Then you’re allowed to let go.

Previous: Overview

Continue reading: Interior

Interior

What is it like on the inside?

It’s impossible to talk about the interior of the Tesla without addressing the elephant in the room – the vast, dashboard-dominating touchscreen that controls virtually every function but for a handful of physical buttons. It used to be a 17-inch portrait affair, but the latest update introduced a landscape screen as per the smaller Model 3.

It handles everything from climate control and audio, via navigation and the hands-free phone, to things like the headlights and sunroof. Happily, despite the size of the screen, the interface/UI is so polished and easy to navigate it’s no more distracting on the move than competitors’ systems. Certain features can also be controlled with buttons on the steering wheel or through voice commands.

Tesla’s issues with build quality are well-publicised, but cars we’ve sampled recently have felt more solid and well-built than those we’ve driven in the past. Supple leather, acceptable plastics, textured wood trim on the dash and an Alcantara headliner – these things aren’t without flaw, but for the most part they feel like premium items nowadays. Just as cars that cost this much money should.

That said, the more you spend, the more they struggle. Get into six-figure territory and the Model S feels out of its depth. You can get a new Bentley for that kind of money, after all…

The driving position is rather good and the seats themselves are comfortable enough. The headrests are of the non-removable variety, so they obscure your view out of the rear-view mirror (which isn’t great to begin with).

Space, though, there’s much of. The boot is big enough to swallow 793 litres of stuff with the seats up, and with the rear bench folded down you can easily get a bike in the back (see our gallery for proof).

The ‘frunk’ (for ‘front trunk’), as Tesla calls it, isn’t massive, but that it’s there at all is a little bonus over petrol- or diesel-powered rivals. There are no door bins, but there’s a little shelf under the touchscreen and a couple of deep bins/cupholders to compensate.

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Continue reading: Buying

Buying

What should I be paying?

Well this is awkward. As discussed you can no longer order a new Model S in the UK, and there’s no guarantee at this stage that Tesla’s factories will ever get round to building right-hand drive models. So your only options at the moment are buy direct from Tesla’s existing inventory, or go second hand.

In the past the company’s prices had a tendency to shift wildly (and without warning) in the UK and Europe, owing to a decision-making process that takes place on the other side of the Atlantic.

Anyway, when it was on sale the Tesla Model S came with refreshingly few extras. You got five exterior paint colours to choose from, and you could upgrade from the standard 19in alloys to 21in ‘Arachnid Wheels’.

Three interior schemes included black, white or cream, and once you’d picked one of those you’d be onto Tesla’s trademark driver assistance tech, dubbed ‘Enhanced Autopilot’. Remember, it’s there to assist you, not take over altogether.

‘Full Self-Driving’ added more cameras/sensors ready for when UK law would permit such a feature, but as explained on the Driving tab, we’re still not there yet. So you can banish visions of removing your hands from the wheel, kicking back and catching up on sleep as the car find it’s way home for you.

Instead of having to go to a dealer or service centre to get your car updated, Tesla pushes updates to its cars over the net like it’s a massive, wheeled smartphone. These updates add new features, improve existing ones and fix bugs. The theory is however old your Model S, it will always have all the latest features, provided you’ve let it update (you don’t have to be in or anywhere near the car). This is clever and we like it very much indeed.

Not that Tesla has conventional dealers, mind you. You buy direct from the company, not via a dealer, and the ‘stores’ where you’d do so are usually found in big shopping centres, not extra-urban industrial estates. Or you can buy online, because obviously.

The Model S draws about five miles per hour-of-charge from a household three-pin plug, which is snail’s pace. This increases to about 20 miles per hour-of-charge from a purpose-built wallbox, which, should you buy an EV, we’d definitely recommend getting fitted to your house. Most are only a few hundred quid.

The big draw with Tesla is that you get access to the Supercharger network – they’re fantastically rapid and very convenient, as they’ve been installed at most UK motorway service stations. Plug into one of these and Tesla claims you can count on up to 200 miles of range in just 15 minutes. By the time you’ve stopped to visit the loo and grab a snack, that really is on par with combustion stopping times.

You can also use Tesla-branded ‘Destination Chargers’ at hotels, gyms and the like, although charging costs will depend on the venue. Unless you find yourself some free electricity, charging at home will almost certainly be the most cost-effective method, so budget around £35 for each time you fill up that 100kWh battery on your driveway.

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Continue reading: Specs & Prices

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