Here’s my ”First Drive Review” of the Model S. I know there are a lot of these already, but I thought this might be of some interest since test drives have just started over here in the EU.
Background: There was a showing of the Beta car at the show room in Oslo, Norway on April 12-14 this year. I was there, as were many others, to see and sit in the car. Some time passed and two Model S’s appeared in Germany a while back, there was a press launch and a whole lot of motor journalists from around Europe were able to test drive the cars. One of those two cars was then taken to Norway and was on display last week (Mon-Sat) at the Showroom. I decided not to go, as the e-mail announcing this also said “test drives coming soon”. At the end of last week an invitation did indeed go out for 15 min test drives, I had an opening to go today (Monday) and was lucky enough to get a spot.
I arrived on time together with my wife, our youngest (6 months old) and a good friend who was very happy join. My wife came to see the car in person, not expecting to sit along for the ride as Tesla had clearly stated no children under the age of 8 in the car during the ride. However, two lovely ladies (Tesla employees) at the showroom watched him and that worked out great (he was sleeping in the child seat in a quiet corner and was still asleep when we returned about 20 minutes later). The representative who rode with me in the passenger seat was a Brit from Manchester, very nice fellow who seemed to really like his job and was proud of the company. I was told I was the third person to drive the car that day, which was indeed the first day of test drives in Norway. He also told me that there had only been a few other “regular customers” who had driven the car in the EU, namely those who took part in an event in Belgium for Athlon car lease’s customers.
It was a typical November day in Oslo: not snowing, not raining but I believe the correct word is sleet. The temperature was just above freezing, by one degree or so. The car had 19 inch wheels with the Pirelli Sottozero studless tires. I can’t say they were that great for these particular road conditions, I actually think I would have had better grip and handling with sticky summer tires.
The car was a black Model S Performance with German plates. It had the tan interior. I didn’t really have much time to focus on the interior, but my take away was it was very appealing over-all, very clean lines, not at all busy, the screen was not distracting but just felt natural, the steering wheel was very thick and nice. In the very beginning my right hand and arm searched for something/anything in the middle of the car, but after a few minutes I had naturally accepted that there was nothing there and didn’t miss it any more. My passengers noted the sloping roof but they weren’t bothered by it. The said the back otherwise felt roomy.
The drive experience was just spectacular! I have driven an electric car (Mistubishi i-MiEV) for the last year so I in one way I was used to the instant throttle, the massive torque from the get-go and the regenerative braking. However, there is no comparison: This is a monster of a car – the way it just pulls, pulls and pulls smoothly must be experienced, especially in the driver’s seat. The route that was planned was really dull and boring. This has to do with the location of the store and that basically there are no good or fun roads in the area. In addition there was quite a lot of traffic most places. I never got it up to more than 120 km/h but that one good acceleration was enough to experience the power of the car. I didn’t floor it going out of turn on the on-ramp, but I did change lanes as I was accelerating heavily and I did loose traction for a brief moment. This scared my passengers but not me at all, it felt completely safe the way the Traction Control kicked in – it felt like the car just took over for a moment and steered me back on the path it knew I wanted to go. I guess this is the purpose of all TC but I’ve never experienced it feeling that natural. The regen was also impressive I think for a car with this mass – I was expecting less to be honest. (Video at 2:45)
Some details I noticed while driving:
- The back-up camera was all fogged up all the time. Not sure if this was because of the just above freezing temp and condensation, or if it was caused by snow/moisture coming from the road surface, but anyhow it made is useless. (Video at 4:40)
- The wiper fluid spray action was weak – it sprayed to about 10 cm up on the screen and didn’t seem to have pressure. Maybe it was low on fluid but I don’t think so since there should have been a warning. Perhaps the nozzles were not correctly angled. (Video at 3:30)
- The view out the back window is not very good, but I find it adequate and together with the side mirrors this will not be a problem.
- I wasn’t at all bothered by the position of stalk below the cruise control lever – maybe this comes from having owned a Mercedes E-class earlier in life.
Some things I asked the rep during the drive and answers that could be of interest:
- EU pricing will be out in about 3 weeks. (Video at 0:44)
- Before the end of the year the details of 3-phase charging will be out. The plug will (obviously be different) (Video at 0:48). After the drive the rep. also more or less confirmed that there will be still only one charge port but hence the plug and receptacle itself will be different in Europe as compared to the US (more pins). He said there should be no problem fitting it in the current charge port location.
- The rep. more or less confirmed that sometime in the future we can expect an AWD Model S. (Video at 1:55)
- The back-up camera and web browser will positively be disabled during driving in the EU for legal reasons. (Video at 4:35)
My friend filmed it all and I did a quick edit down to about 5min30sec if you are interested in seeing (not very exciting and you’re not really going to see the best of what Norway and Oslo has to offer). Also you will see me wearing glasses, which is very uncommon for me, but I wanted to have the best possible drive experience.
Interestingly enough when I went online this evening to post something about the test drive on a domestic forum my fellow Norwegian “Laumb” (he’s on TMC as well) had posted and he says the he got a call from Tesla this evening basically telling him that his scheduled test drive (the next day) had to be postponed as there had been “an incident” and that they were now “waiting for parts to be flown in the from USA”. If you do watch the video you will hear the rep telling me at the very beginning to please be careful not to spin the car – as he himself had already done it twice. Humor aside, I hope no one got hurt and that the car is soon back in drivable condition so that many more Norwegians can enjoy a test drive.
