The interior of the car really is no different. It’s just as impressive in terms of styling and of course there’s the amount of tech on offer that really makes this car stand out. The first thing I noticed was the lack of a transmission tunnel - it creates an almost cavernous feel in the front and the lack of dials or gauges add to the spacey feel. It didn’t feel alien though - it was comfortable and comforting in equal measure - the seats had a fantastic amount of support and the range of seat position options were great. I wouldn’t have said no to a little bit more headroom (both in the front and the back) but the width of the car and general sense of space more than made up for it. An ingenious feature of the car is its ability to have two seats in the boot folded out. It pretty much makes the Tesla S a true 7 seater and the space is fantastic. It literally takes a few seconds to get them out and put them away again, too.
Coaxing the electric motor into life couldn’t be simpler, or quieter. A simple pull of the stick on the right hand side of the steering wheel moves the car from P to D, and when the brake pedal is released the car moves forward as smoothly as you can imagine.
In more or less silence, I tip-toed along the gravel driveway of the hotel and down the the junction. Turning left, I blipped the throttle….no such thing as delay or lag….response times have to be on the mark here. We’re talking the equivalent of 400bhp to the rear wheels, so I instinctively corrected before the car got a little tail happy. The momentum would have carried me and at 2.1 tonnes it feels too heavy to be chucking around. Floor it on the straights though and you’ll get to 60 in about 4.2 seconds. The acceleration was amazing and relentless….and a lot of fun despite it dramatically shortening the expected lifespan of charge. The throttle response is also so perfect that it really doesn’t need a lot of work to temper your speed around traffic.
On the road the car felt as you’d expect. With 21 inch wheels on the higher performance model there was a little more road noise than I’d want, but I was reassured with stock wheels this wouldn’t be an issue and I was inclined to believe it. Although it could have done with softening slightly the car felt wonderful to sit in. Surprisingly easy to drive in the cruise or even in traffic, but with huge amounts of power available if needs be. It really was instant power too...no delay, no transmission, no fuss. It was probably the smoothest application of power I’ve ever felt. The regenerative braking was also a revelation - I must admit I didn’t expect much of this but in reality it worked very well. I didn’t need to hover over the brake too much and the system actually helped when driving the car at reasonably slow speeds. A lovely little indication on the dash showed in green how much energy I was saving too, which was a nice little touch.
In terms of little touches, Tesla have pretty much nailed it. The display in front of you is intuitive and easy to get to grips with - my favourite bit was the energy usage display alongside the speedo, and the small pop-up displaying Google Maps. It’s infinitely customisable too which will satisfy the tech-savvy or stat hungry.
My only gripe with the big touchscreen the car ships with is usage of the 3G in the UK. It’s great having a screen that displays Google Maps, and in theory this is a wonderful idea. Although the car comes with 4 years of data from O2, there are thousands of places around the country you can’t really get any signal at all. No 3G signal - no GPS. In day to day life, the reality about this aspect is that it would need a lot of refining to properly fit in in the UK.
In terms of an overall verdict however this gripe is academic. We’ve been used to in previous years raising an eyebrow to EV vehicles with bold claims, but the ability to travel nearly 300 miles on a full charge in the Tesla in absolute comfort is truly revolutionary. The sales figures prove it - and its parity with larger executive rivals make this car the first true EV vehicle you can really take seriously as an alternative to the Audi's, BMW's and Merc's. This is a properly stunningly impressive car. With bags of power, a huge amount of comfort and so much tech you’ll be happy well into the next decade, it’s probably the biggest leap forward we’ve seen in personal transport for a long long time.