At a Model S reservation holder event in Silcon Valley this weekend, Tesla CEO Elon Musk made two announcements about the company's new electric sedan.
The first is that the seven seat Model S (five normal seats, two jump seats) would, thanks to some aerodynamic wheels, have an EPA-verified range of 320 miles. 20 miles more than without the aero wheels.
The next bit was the more interesting one, though: For $80,000 you can order up a high-performance version of the Tesla Model S that will hit 60 in just 4.6 seconds. The standard Model S manages the task in 5.6 seconds. There was no word on other handling modifications or what the range is when you drive it like an M5.
Tesla, of course, has built itself on the back of a small sports car and have an owner base a) willing to spend $100K on a car that's not terribly practical and b) interested in sporty driving characteristics so this was pretty much a formality. "It'll be better than anyone thinks a car like this can be. The goal with the Model S was to build the best car, not just the best electric vehicle," said Musk to his future Model S owners, "I'm proud of this car and it's a revolution that I hope the rest of the industry will follow."
(AutoCar)
cynic783 says:
08:48 AM, 10/ 3/11
Will be interesting to see how it does under independent, controlled scientific conditions.
lostboyz says:
08:52 AM, 10/ 3/11
Sorry, of all the revolutions that the automotive industry has seen, none of them cost $80k
jackson611 says:
09:35 AM, 10/ 3/11
Evidently Musk, along with many other people in the auto industry forgot that almost 100 years ago you could have bought a steam car, electric car, ethanol powered car, or a gasoline powered car. The market choose gasoline. It will always choose gasoline as long as gasoline retains its positive characteristics (space/energy efficiency, etc.).
The only time that hybrid cars are bought is when gas prices are high. When gasoline prices go down so do hybrid sales. The average consumer doesn't care about global warming, if they did every time a new study came out showing how humans are at least partially responsible for global warming hybrid sales would increase.
Electric power in cars sounds great until you realize that the electricity is going to come from carbon/nuclear fuels. Even if the energy came from wind turbines or solar panels, do environmentalists want to interfere with birds flying in the air, or places for them to land?
The Model S looks like a beautiful car. If Tesla ever put an internal combustion engine inside it wouldn't have to take loans from the government (the fact that the open market wouldn't provide funding should mean something) and wouldn't be years behind or have to demand deposits from customers years ahead of time as financing for its products.
chochmastergen says:
11:16 AM, 10/ 3/11
Until someone comes up with a hot swappable battery system or designs a charging station that can charge a car to full in 20 minutes or less, these cars will never be any sort of success.
Tesla has done well by making an eccentric sports car in small numbers for the rich. Desinging a high end mainstream car with the same limitations won't go so well. These designers should spend less time eeking a few more miles out of their systems and more time desinging, inventing, and pushing for an electric car infrastructure if they want to succeed.
ctpax says:
03:23 PM, 10/ 3/11
You people remind me of a bunch of stubborn idiots who back in 2007 were saying 'phones are only for calling other people. IPHONE will surely flop.'
emajor says:
09:08 PM, 10/ 3/11
Such a beautiful, beautiful car.
That I will never experience because I don't have $100K to spend on a car that can't take me on road trips.