November 1, 2012 - And the winner is…the Tesla Model S? I’ll give you a minute to let the disbelief sink in. Go ahead and hit the refresh button a couple of times to make sure it’s not a typo. Heck, open another browser window and Google it, just so you know I’m not messing with you. It’s true—the Tesla Model S has been awarded the coveted Automobile Magazine Car of the Year. What is a Tesla you ask? Tesla was founded by some Silicon Valley engineers back in 2003, because they wanted to, “prove that electric vehicles could be awesome.” I took that last bit straight off their website. The first Tesla hit the streets in 2008, and now four years later, there are over 2,300 Teslas (Tesli? Or maybe it’s just Tesla, like deer, or fish?) cruising the streets emission free in 37 countries across the globe.
At this point you’re still skeptical—I can see it in your face. So let’s talk about this Model S and why it’s such a big deal. The Model S is an all-electric luxury sedan that accelerates from zero to sixty in 4.3 seconds. According to CNN Money, the Model S raced a 560HP BMW M5 to which car could hit 100mph first. The Tesla won. Did I mention that it is ALL-ELECTRIC?
What does the Tesla look like on the inside? Again I am relying on CNN because I haven’t actually seen the car myself but apparently the entire dashboard is a giant touchscreen. The instruments, console buttons, stereo, A/C and sunroof are all controlled by this iPad like screen. Oh, you can use it to surf the web and check your email too.
It’s hard to do the Tesla justice, without pictures or a video but believe me this is quite the engineering feat. It’s like everyone in the car industry tells you that cars have to be a certain way—that no matter how hard you try you just can’t make an electric car cool—and Tesla just goes and turns that idea on its head in less than 10 years of car production. Tesla as a company may not be around 10 years from now, but the idea can never be erased. Proof exists that cars can be something different than what they have traditionally been made to be. At its base price, the Model S goes for $50K, but with added functionality it can go for as much as $100K.
