For a relatively small automotive company, Tesla Motors sure likes punching way above its weight.
The zero-emission automaker, co-founded by young Billionaire Elon Musk has been shaking the traditional engineering and design of automobiles to it’s core. After entering the market with it’s 2-seater Roadster, Tesla really began to get noticed when it launched it’s Model S sedan. With driving ranges in excess of 400 KM’s in a single charge combined with full family functionality and a level of performance and handling that makes many luxury performance vehicles seem pedestrian by comparison, the Model S has been nothing short of a game changer.
And then Tesla decided to make the Model S even better.
In the fall of 2014, Tesla launched a dual motor version of the Model S. The new two motor system took an amazing battery-electric sedan and turned it into a lithium-ion rocket. With a combined net equivalent of 691 horsepower and an astounding 867 lb/ft of torque, this thing travels from zero to 100 KM/h in 3.4 seconds…or as I prefer to say 0 to 100 in Holy F**k!!
As a member of the Canadian Green Car Award steering committee and a judge, I’ve been itching to get some seat time into Elon’s ‘Other’ Rocket, and fortunately this past week I had my chance.
In an attempt to give the new P85D some exposure and to also speak about the new and highly-advanced Autopilot technology now being installed in all Tesla vehicles, the company set out on a 10 city ‘double black-diamond’ tour. Toronto was it’s second stop and while there on media day, I had a chance to learn more about the car and take it out on a short test-track set up to see if the car is all that it’s cracked up to be.
Since words would never do it justice, I decided to film the opportunity instead:
The good news about the test-drive experience was that it provided me with more than enough evidence that this car is nothing short of an eco-friendly super-car. The bad news however was that I clearly wanted to spend more time in the vehicle than the 10 or so minutes that I did. I suppose that’s the entire point of the tour though, and to that effect it should certainly do the job that Tesla has set it out to do.
Tesla Motors is doing yeoman’s work at proving zero-emission driving has all the potential to provide motorists with the functionality, performance and dependability of internal-combustion engines. While the six-figure price tag of the P85D keeps this vehicle as not much more than a play-toy for the eco-conscious or trend-setting affluent, it shows the public what the future is likely to be like.
With Tesla set to launch it’s much-anticipated, but oft-delayed Model X 7-passenger crossover vehicle in the later half of this year, we can expect to see the company in the news headlines throughout 2015. Looking beyond the Model X lies the promised ‘Model 3’ which Tesla claims will be a vehicle priced around $30K and with a 200 mile (320 KM) range. Coincidentally, General Motors announced simultaneously last week in Toronto and Chicago that they will commit to bringing their Chevy Bolt EV concept to full production – a vehicle that ALSO boasts 200 miles of range and a price point around $30K.
While the above isn’t enough to say that we have entered the zero-emission zeitgeist just yet, it does show that the seeds for the shift have been planted and only time will tell how fast it takes for the seeds to sprout and fully take hold.
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