Tesla is the spoiled child of the public when it comes to cars. The company announced a month ago that it received more than 325 000 pre-orders for Model 3, which corresponds to about $14 billion in implied future sales. The figures are huge. It triggered my curiosity to test one of the Tesla cars. I made an appointment at Tesla in Hamburg (Germany) to get a feel for the car of the future.
The general feeling I had during the 25 minutes test drive was: This car is really exciting. It is packed up with high quality materials. The fast acceleration, interior materials and soundproof make it a more enjoyable ride. However, when you look at the price you start doubting your need for such a car. Maybe Model 3 would change people’s thoughts about electric cars.
Now let me tell you what I liked and what I did not like at the Tesla Model S 90D I drove in Germany:
The 5 things I did not like:
1. Not so comfortable rear headrest
The front seats are very comfortable. I can’t say the same about the rear headrest support. They are ok for short distances, but if you need to travel for a couple of hours my personal belief is the design needs a restyling. People in the back seat need to rest, maybe even fall asleep. I would change those headrest with other more comfortable ones.
2. Fingerprints on the screen.
All the car options are controlled from the enormous touchscreen. That means one uses the screen each time he is in the car. The fingerprints that are left on the screen take away from its slickness. It does not very look fancy for a $80 000 car. Is there a solution for that?
3. A heavy car
Tesla Model S was marketed as a sporty car. Well, it is. But it feels so heavy in corners. I looked for the specifications and saw that it weights more than 2 tones. About 1/3 is the weight of batteries. You feel that when getting into an intersection and when you turn the wheel left or right. This is an important feature for drivers demanding a dynamic car.
4. Charging time
You need to wait about 1h15m – 1h20m minutes to fully charge your Tesla at a SuperCharger station (these are Tesla free charging stations installed in different regions). If you want to do it at home – it takes even more: from 5 to 9 hours depending on your home voltage point capacity.
5. Only one command center
Yes, that is WOW controlling all the car from the big touchscreen. But that means Tesla drivers depend on it. It could be a pain in the ass when facing technical problems and transporting it to the next Tesla Service Center. By the way, there are not so many in the world right now.
This is another thing that bothered me – It took me a lot of time to get to the place I was going to test the car. I was based in Hannover and had to drive to Hamburg just to do the Test Drive. That is more than 2 h of driving. As much as you would love this car, the practical stuff like getting to an official dealership and wasting almost all day on that could be quite a disturbance for some of people. People in Portugal, for instance, felt what it is like not having a close representative and driving to another country for the Tesla Service Center.
Read also: Before getting to the things I liked about Tesla Model S, I wanted to link to another story in the Financial Times about how the desire for electric cars went into reverse for Tim Bradshaw. The author points out how complicated was in San Francisco to charge a BMW i3 (electric car).
The things I liked a lot about Tesla Model S 90D:
1. Incredible smooth
The way this car handles gives the driver a very comfortable feeling.
2. Fast acceleration
I will not comment more on this as you already probably know how fast it is.
3. Very comfortable front seats
I felt somebody hugged me when I got in.
4. Precise control over your roof through the tablet
Readers must know that one can operate by mm the panoramic roof from the central tablet.
5. Huge screen for rear HD camera
6. Car sensors.
I really enjoyed how the sensors of the car project the vehicles around on the dashboard. It makes it feel very close to the reality.
General conclusion
This car is perfect for high paid executives, frequent travellers, driving at least a couple of time per week between different cities. I would not recommend it to a top manager with a private driver. The germans (Audi, Mercedes Benz, BMW) still rule this territory offering more features, more confort and it does not seem they want to lose this battle.
