The future is here. I had the opportunity to take out the Tesla Model S for a test drive for our upcoming fundraiser Fire on the Fairways golf outing. This year we had the opportunity to raffle off the Tesla thanks to our friends at Brandywine.
Would you believe that the Tesla has roots right here in Northwest Ohio. Believe it or not there are parts made for Tesla at the Maumee stamping plant. And Brandywine has a program that rents out the Model S to its members. Which brings us to the opportunity to get someone behind the wheel of this amazing car. The car is 100% electric and takes no gas. The range on the particular model on a full charge is about 240 miles.
There has a ton of buzz behind this car, the company in general not to mention the founder, Elon Musk. Elon also heads up Space X and shoots rockets into space for NASA. Most recently he sent a rocket to Mars with his private Telsa in the nose cone playing Space Oddity by David Bowie on a continuous loop.
After getting behind the wheel of this car you can definitely imagine some of the engineering being used to send this car into space is being used in this car on earth. I was put through a short demo of how to drive it. I am sure I could have figured it out on my own the demo was nice and shortened my learning curve. You simply get in, apply the brake, shift into drive (the shifter is on the steering column) and press the gas. The climate control system and radio turns on as soon as you walk up close to the car. The key is simply a small version of the car that you leave in your pocket. The cars door handles are recessed into the door until you approach it with the key fob when they emerge from the door and the side mirrors move into place.
The first thing you notice (and everyone comments on) is the larger than life screen on the dash to your right. It is bigger than the biggest ipad and is mounted vertically and is customized to your liking. In front of the steering wheel is another display that displays the battery life, navigation if used and a radar like screen that shows your car in relation to other cars around you and any other objects you might hit. Everything is controlled by the touch screen to your right like the trunk, sunroof, streaming music for days, answering the phone, navigation and the list goes on and on.
I had always heard about how fast the Tesla is but I was not prepared for just how powerful this car was. Online it said it could go 0-60 in 4.2 seconds. I did not try it but it sure….who am I kidding of course I tried it. And you will too. I timed it and it was almost exactly 4.2! It felt like the Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point! The car is so smooth and accelerates with zero noise. It just gets up and goes. The hardest thing to get used to was the immediate braking when you let off the gas. You can definitely feel the drag of the brakes as soon as you release the gas pedal….err, electric pedal? When I got used to it I would rarely have to brake and that system is also used to regenerate the battery.
You can charge the tesla at home using a 220V outlet. Which is nice but not sure how much that would cost you? Tesla has installed “Superchargers” all across America. They have a network of stations that you can charge at no cost to you. They are positioned in such a way that you can travel from coast to coast and always have one before your battery life runs out. The navigation system has all of the chargers and available as will nvigate you from one to the other on a long trip. It does create some inconvenience because it does take about 40 minutes to charge up as opposed to 4 minutes to fuel up. However with a little patience and planning you can travel with no fuel charge. If I remember correctly it was about $600 in fuel to go to Florida and back. With the trunk in the front and the back there is plenty of room for luggage as well. I fueled up at….err, charged up at Meijer in Maumee. It was super simple and the car was done after walking around the store and picking up a few things. If I owned Deets would have a more regular customer.
The car was amazing. It was far above my pay range and had some anxiety driving around such a vehicle. But I definitely felt like I was driving the future. When Henry Ford created the Model T everyone said why would I buy one of those, I have a totally good horse right here. The Model S is that car Mustang drivers are looking at and saying why do I need that I have this perfectly good horse right here…..? I saw why.