I've been following Tesla Motors since its inception in 1993. It's been a mesmerizing assent lead by one of the most creative geniuses that history has known. He is an extraordinary engineer, program developer, product architect, rocket scientist and visionary entrepreneur.  With his gigantic brain and epic determination I believe that Elon Musk will better the lives of this planets inhabitants beyond the trillions whom have come before him. In the Tesla Model S we have so much more than just a superlatively well screwed together vehicle, we are witnessing a paradigm shift that mankind has not seen since the industrial revolution. Unlike the industrial revolution which had no concern of any kind for the environment or the people making use of its products, Tesla Motors was founded on the need to save the planet from the destructively filthy use of petroleum as a fuel for most of our transpiration needs. This is an irrefutable benefit, across the board for every single creature, including all of us. This is a company that fully understands the consequences of what have been our energy use trajectories and sees clearly beyond all other automobile manufacturers that if it kills its potential buyers with ever increasing levels of poison in the air, in the end, no one will be around to buy their product.

There have been so many wonderful cars with wonderful character that have pushed our personal conveyances beyond our expectations or, even what we thought was possible but, none have ever made the quantum leap forward into what the future will be, since Henry Ford's model T. The model T put the world on wheels as the first truly mass produced automobile back in 1906 but, it was a dirty, crude contraption. Henry couldn't foresee the environmental devastation's that would be wrought by the way his engines used fuel, nor was it his concern. Everything has changed so much since 1906. Technology now moves forward at a pace that that is dizzying to the common person. In consideration of that, it's almost hard to believe that the automotive industry has been chained to the internal combustion engine for the better part of 100 years. In so doing it has chained it self additively to the greasy tit of big oil regardless of the self evident perils that soil all that it touches. Tesla Motors refuses the previously mentioned tit and relegates the use of petroleum to it's largely recyclable plastics.

All of Tesla's humanitarian hopes are well and good but, how does it accomplish them. In this instance, quite simply by delivering the best over all, most perfectly packaged automobile that has ever been put on four wheels. There is no mixed message to the  Model S design or engineering. It is fully a top to bottom rethink. It is not about mixing drive trains to cowardly quell the kicking and screaming of fossil fuel giants as they sink into the goo from which they came. Nor is it about cramming components for alternate fuel modes into a vehicle that was never initially designed for it. Instead, the Model S platform is a skate board configuration. Its propulsion module exists in little more space than a trans axle. It's battery pack constitutes the entirety of its floor pan. With the absences of an engine, transmission and exhaust system the Tesla Model S has cavernous cargo holds fore and aft as well as a perfectly flat floor, unencumbered by the interior volumes traditionally taken by those omitted, obsolete mechanical components.

The skate board configuration first appeared in the General Motors Hywire concept from 2002. It was brilliant in many ways but, flawed beyond production viability in that it used compressed hydrogen to power motors in the wheels. Any body who has done a little reading about suspension geometry and handling characteristic knows that increasing un-sprung weight is not a good thing. Motors in the wheels are precisely that. Hydrogen tanks take up a lot of room so the Hywire's floor is more than 2 times thicker than the Tesla's. The system space and it's complexity are considerably greater than a battery pack and battery technologies are advancing more swiftly than hydrogen. Beyond it's obvious technical short comings, the Hywire was utterly brilliant in its packaging. The Hywire set out to create a universal platform that would accommodate a variety of different body types for a variety of different markets. Sedans, wagons, minivans, sport utility vehicles, trucks and sports cars would all simply bolt onto the same platform. Interface with all of the vehicle's controls and system mapping would be conducted wirelessly.

Tesla ran with the basic packaging theme that was presented by the Hywire and perfected it to a point that General Motors couldn't, despite the breadth of its massive design and engineering resources. Tesla had already successfully built its Roadster as a proof of concept but, it was based on an existing Lotus Elise platform. Elon promised that the next car would be a full sized sedan at half of the Roadsters price. He promised a car that would be new from the ground up that would grind up all old notions of what a car should be. All of the most important critics seem to agree. Fresh out of the box, The Telsa Model S won the coveted Motor Trend Car of The Year Award by unanimous decision. That's never happened before in Motor Trend's illustrious 60 year history. Motor Trend has always been one of the toughest, most objective automotive news sources in the world. If there is a nit to pick Motor Trend will find it, no matter the market segment. Their evaluations span the automotive market spectrum from $13,000 econboxes to $2,225,000.00 Bugatti's. Consumer Report is certainly one of the world's most respected comparative product evaluation sources. They say, hands down "Best Car Ever Tested".


How could all of this be possible? How could a start up company with no prior history of producing a fully new vehicle hit the ball so completely out of the park? Quite simply by making a pile of what would seem to be boastfully bloated, impossible promises and delivering on every single one of them.
What did Tesla promise of its sedan above and beyond its earth shaking: The most efficient sedan ever produced, The lowest center of gravity(equal to the Chevrolet Corvette) The fastest acceleration of any sedan in it's class, The most usable interior volume of any car in it's class, The only 7 passenger sedan anywhere in any class. By the absence of an intrusive front engine, it has the largest frontal crumple zone of any sedan in its class, making it the safest sedan on the market.

In fact, the Model S's Safety rating in and of itself is every bit as significant as any other ground breaking aspect of this astonishing vehicle. The NHTSA crash test footage is quite simply revelatory.

As I sat and watched the side pole impact test I found myself wrapped in near incredulity over the lack of intrusion. I immediately  researched other videos of large sedans undergoing the same brutal test but, found surprisingly little. I did however find plenty of footage of bigger vehicles such as the Mercedes ML350 sport utility practically swallowing the pole. I didn't see the crash test dummy after that footage but, I'd say that it would be a fair guess that it wasn't unscathed. In all fairness to Mercedes, the comparable Volvo XC60 tests were even more spine chilling. That's right, Volvo, the last word in passenger car safety is in nowhere near the same safety league as the Tesla Model S. Not even close. As it turns out, the battery pack(as well as the super reinforced B pillar) is the main hero of this safety test result. The pole couldn't get through it. When the Tesla was put on a rotisserie for inspection of its under side components a slight folding crease can be seen through the center of the battery pack that wasn't there on the front impact test inspection. This basically means that the battery pack is not only a lower intrusion beam that is as wide as the car but that its also designed to absorb the shock of the impact symmetrically to what is essentially a folding longitudinal spine. While crush testing the Tesla's roof to see at what point it would collapse, the NHTSA broke their machine. Yes, the Tesla roof crushed their roof crushing machine. In the flip over test the NHTSA found that they couldn't flip it over either without modifying their flip over ramp radically to greater degrees than they had for any car that they had ever previously tested. Again, credit goes to the Tesla's ingenious battery pack that spreads it's load across the entirety of the cars floor thus lowering the center of gravity to a point that no other car in its class has ever been able to achieve due to physical heights and mass of their drive train componentry. Its a packaging paradigm check mate. When Elon was interviewed after the crash test results were released. He stated that it was always the intention to build a car that exceeded all federal safety and crash regulations. He went on to say that his children and loved ones ride in his cars and if one of them was harmed by something that he could have knowingly prevented, he wouldn't know how to live with himself. If only this were so in Automotive CEO's and bean counters from this industry's inception, how many fewer loved ones would we have counted as lost to fatal car crashes?


 The Model S's fluid yet athletically sinewy body is not only gorgeous in away akin to the worlds most chic offerings, it's aerodynamic drag coefficient bests the Toyota Prius, as being the most aerodynamic production car in history. Tesla promised a radically new yet incredibly intuitive vehicle interface via an enormous touch screen that is twice the size of an Apple Ipad, as such, the Tesla Model S only has two actual buttons on its dash board, one for the hazard lights and one for the glove box. This is another packaging paradigm check mate. In not so many years, there won't be a new car without this sort of interface. Buttons, knobs, sliders and thumb wheels are now clearly not the way forward in any way shape or form. There's just no contest. They promised a keyless car that identifies the driver by the proximity of the fob in the drivers pocket. When the Model S's proximity sensor detects the fob it unlocks the doors and presents its handles with subtle ceremony as it prepares the vehicle to be operated as soon as the driver sits down. When the driver leaves the car, it locks its self automatically. There are so many innovative and truly unique features that set this car apart from all of the competition on so many levels. Perhaps the most important is the fact that no other electric car has exceeded its battery range, which is rated at 265 miles and there have been instances reported that  400 mile ranges have been achieved in city driving where the use of regenerative braking is more prevalent. As battery technologies march forward they are becoming smaller, longer lasting and more powerful. It is not inconceivable that in the very near future, the Tesla battery pack will leap frog into a 500 mile range. Who knows what the city driving range on a battery like that might be, nearly 1000 miles? That sounds like it could be the answer to a whole lot of problems. Can anyone say "urban fleet vehicles"? That would be 2 or 3 times further than any gas tank could take you. Talk about flipping the model, in the end the internal combustion engine may lose out because of consumer's issues with range anxiety. Another punch in big petroleum's nose is that it costs about $4 to charge the Model S from your home or, free when its being charged at one of Tesla's many supercharging stations.

Ok, so Tesla has knocked one out of the park, straight out of the box with the Model S. What will they do for an encore? A revolution will not be forged by a single contraption no matter how marvelous. What should we expect next? In 2014 the Tesla Model X sport crossover vehicle will be introduced. It will be every bit the industry game changer that the Model S has proved to be. It will enjoy all of the packaging advantages of the sedans versatile platform and then some. Aside from it's inherent safety, it will boast the most usable interior and cargo volumes of any similarly classed vehicle available from any existing manufacturer. It will seat an honest to goodness 7 adult sized adults. It will afford rear compartment passengers through Falcon wing doors. The Falcon wing door is a rethink of the original gull wing door first introduced on the 1956 Mercedes SL That doors design was more of an original engineering solution devised to cope with the tubular box section of the cars race derived chassis than a styling exercise. It was as gorgeous and exotic as it was impractical, especially when parking in close quarters(or flipping it over!). Since that first SL we've seen a fair share of exotic super cars with exotic though not particularly practical doors. Tesla has figured out that if it hinges a gull wing door through it's center as well as the roof line, it not only requires less room than a mini van's sliding door, to get in and out of but, it also acts as roof while its in the up position, providing shelter from inclement weather. Its a door that you can stand under like an umbrella. Exotic and practical, how often do those two words go together? let us not forget, we're talking about a sport utility vehicle, a conveyance for smart soccer mom's with doors that put both mini vans and Lamborghini's to shame. As cool as that is, its' only icing on this cool, cool cake. Where the Model X will really make its mark are with the new goodies that lie at its core. It will have motors both fore and aft, and will be the first production automobile of any kind with a truly intelligent, torque vectoring 4 wheel drive system. we won't know till its actually here and tested but, in theory its yet another game changer that promises traction and adhesion beyond anything that we've known but, in our dreams. As the Model X and S share the same basic platform, it can be certain that there will be twin motor, 4 wheel drive sedans from Tesla in the very near future. The performance potential of this configuration is staggering by every measure. A Model S in its top trim level sports more than 428 bhp. Could a twin motored Model S sedan be capable of doubling that?!?!?

My guess is no, at least not right off of the bat but, be sure of this, it will be a monster that eats everything in its path. Mercedes AMG's will be snacks and BMW M's will be the bits between its teeth.There are already piles of videos on line wherein Model S owners are smoking Corvettes and Vipers on the drag strips. A twin motor Model S will most likely smoke the upper echelons of  Ferraris, Lamborghini and Maclaren.

So often show cars push the boundaries of what would actually be production viable and merely hint at less extreme applications of their design themes that will carried over to what we would actually see in the market place. In that, the majority of show car and concept vehicles are relegated to the realm of beautiful but unbuildable what ifs. That is not the case here. The pictured above is not just a beautiful dream, as radical as it seems. This is really, really close, I mean really, to what we'll see coming to the market next year.

Aside from the fact that the Model S is a game changer on more levels than the automotive industry has ever know, it is in a word beautiful. While being the most aerodynamic car on the road, it manages to maintain its sublime grace and elegant proportions in a way that no other sedan quite has. While looking at the sleek yet stately four door, its hard not to imagine what a coupe based on the same design language might look like. The car on top is just that. I brought the lower photo into Photoshop and gave it a chop and channel. I was very careful in trying to leave as much unchanged as possible, knowing that so much effort has gone into optimizing the wind cheating. By chopping 2 or 3 inches off of the roof and the same from the body's belt line the result is stunning in a Jaguar F Type or Maserati Grand Sport sort of way. My guess is that a coupe of this proportion could be very likely. It could also easily see a convertible variant and as such may be the basis for next roadster. A convertible would be much easier and less expensive to produce than an entirely different car. Before any Lotus Elise fans fly off of the handle( the car upon which the current roadster is based) the Elise occupies a much smaller market niche than the Jag or Maserati or Mercedes SL. Its a wondrous toy to be sure but, you won't hear anyone calling it practical or particularly comfortable. In the above coupe configuration  It would not only have more interior and cargo volume than any of its competition, it could have a theoretical performance envelope of more than 850 horsepower. I know that sounds impossible and perhaps even insane but, consider this, the Model S produce more than 428 horsepower  Next year the Model X will be produced as a twin motor 4 wheel drive variant from the same platform. So, in re-cap, what we have here is something the size of an Aston Martin and just about as good looking, starting under $40,000 for a base model and perhaps $70k for a top of the line edition with twin motors, 4 wheel drive, a convertible top and a 0-60 time of less than 2.5 seconds. If the assent of Tesla Motors has been largely due to its product and development strategies, A sports car bearing more likeness to the car above is more inevitable than another tiny toy that's first true purpose was to be a proof of concept more than anything else.

Tesla promises that once they are fully ramped up to a 40,000 vehicle annual production between the Model S and Model X, they will introduce a $30,000 entry level mid sized sedan by 2016. It is not hard to imagine that the new Tesla roadster may be developed along side of it. It is also not hard to imagine that there are racing cars and supercars on their drawing boards as well. Though no words from Tesla have been spoken of it, knowing what we know it's hard not to dream of a $100,000 Tesla hyper-car that decimates multi million dollar offerings like Pagani, Bugatti or Koenigsegg. I'm sure that the designers and engineers over there have dreamt that dream plenty and all of Tesla's dreams begin and end with Elon.

Tesla has however mentioned it's interest in trucks because of high torque characteristically inherent to electric motors(100% from 0 rpm). I assumed that Elon was talking about pick up trucks at that share holders meeting but when you think about it he could have just as easily been talking about tractor trailers. How many battery packs could a trailer hold, enough to cross the country on a single charge?

While on the topic of battery charging it must be considered that this is every bit as much of a challenge as designing the superlative vehicle itself and every bit as expensive. Of course, everyone can charge their car from their home but, the world is a lot bigger than the Tesla's 300 mile range. Tesla's solution is to build its own infrastructure. When was last time that anybody heard of a car manufacturer doing that? Ever? There was very little in the way of an infrastructure for internal combustion engine when it first hit the streets but, there was no stopping it and gas stations popped up as demand rose. Rather than wait, Tesla has begun to install it's own network of super charging stations across the country. They've started on the west and east coasts and are making their way into the countries interior. In ten years they will be everywhere and, what's more is that the juice is free. Tesla owners will not be charged a cent for charging at these stations. That's right, zero energy expense can be had by all Model S owners as they silently glide from station to station. Big oil must be losing it's mind over this. Quite frankly I say fuck them. In terms of building super charging stations vs gas stations, super charging stations win hands down just from a construction stand point alone. None of the same site preparation or precautions are needed in order to bury enormous tanks of poisonous fuel underground or keep it from exploding and charring everything within a large radius or leaking and contaminating all surrounding soils and water tables. Since charging is free, no attendants are required. Currently(no pun intended) the Model S can fully recharge it's battery at these station in less than an hour. If you can't wait that long, Tesla has developed a quick battery changing system( basically the same machine that installs the batteries in the factory) that they've begun to install at select super charging stations. The system will replace the depleted battery back with a fully charged one in 90 seconds. The cost for that service will approximately be the same as filling a tank with gas, which by the way takes about 4 minutes. That transaction happens on the sedan's central touch screen via credit card number or Paypal account(Paypal was invented by Musk and is the root origin of Elon's fortune by which Tesla was made possible).

Watching this video makes wonder about how this battery swapping ability could change racing. Formula E(E for electric) is beginning to take shape but, the inability to recharge quickly enough necessitates drivers to swap cars. That represents a huge wall that will prove largely impenetrable for most die hard racing fans. A racing car that can swap batteries in half the time that it takes for other racing cars to refuel, well, that's a whole other kettle of fish, a kettle that could win races against anything. As mentioned earlier, Tesla has never made any announcements about any kind of racing ambition but, be sure that they follow every development in this and every other related industry. Also consider that every major automobile company has bolstered their engineering development credibility through racing for as long as there have been cars. 

Another interesting facet to Tesla's infrastructure strategy is that as more and more electric vehicles hit the market, it only makes sense for them to be adapted to an existing net work. While energy will be free for Tesla owners, you can bet your bottom dollar that Tesla will make money on every non Tesla that chooses to use their facility. By the time that Tesla fully implements this plan, it will be all but impossible for any other one company to catch up to it. They've also begun installing super charging stations in England and Norway. As their markets expand so will they're infrastructure and it will be controlled by Tesla rather than big oil. One of the main reasons that this plan is viable is because every super charging station is solar powered and Elon is chairman and principal share holder of Solar City, Americas largest supplier and installer of photo voltaic solar panel technology. This company has more than 15,000 projects under its belt and Google has recently invested a quarter of a billion dollars in its stock.

Tesla doesn't want to sell it's cars the old fashioned way either. When you buy a Tesla, you buy directly from the factory on line or visit one of many Tesla stores that are popping up across the country, most generally in shopping malls. There is no third party dealership involved and boy does that have third party car dealerships worried across the board. It's well that they should be worried. Its an old and often unpleasant high pressure system that turns more folk off than on. Back when the auto industry was young and uninvolved with real estate and cars were less reliable and the internet didn't exist and people couldn't research things for themselves, dealerships made sense. By its simplicity the Model S was designed to require none of the same maintenance as any car that has come before it. It'll never have transmission problems because it has enough torque to not require one. There are coolants for the batteries and though I don't know but, I will assume that the suspension components will require periodic lubrication there is little else that it will need. Brakes? They should last at least twice as long as any other car on the market because most braking is done regeneratively through the motor rather than the brakes, aside from putting real power back into the battery. How many moving parts does an internal combustion engine have? Answer: a lot, cams, cranks, pistons, rods, valves, lifters, springs, timing chains, fly wheel, coolant pumps, fuel pumps lubrication pumps, injectors, it goes on and on. Its quite a marvel of ballet to be sure, turning thousands of controlled explosions a minute into rotational force but, any one of those parts could end as a broken ankle. As such, there are thousands if not millions of equations for a critical failure. Engines are also covered with all sorts of myriad sensors, anyone of them can be subject to failure. The general rule of thumb is that, the more parts that a machine has represents the more things that can go wrong with a machine. The Model S's motor has One moving part. It has no engine and therefore will never require engine maintainance. It has no exhaust system, so that will never require replacement either.

Dealer freak outs have reached such extremes in Texas and North Carolina that they have lobbied to outlaw Tesla from selling cars in their state. It didn't work in North Carolina and I suppose that Texas is hoping that Tesla shows up with more lobby dough than the dealers but, I don't think that's going to happen. I predict that soon, there will be so many Teslas in every other state that most Texans will simply demand that the laws be changed. Texas law makers will have no choice but to answer that demand unless they wish to be viewed by their constituents as being totally dim witted and uninterested in their rights as a consumer.

There has been an enormous amount of debate in the financial community about the assent of Tesla's stock and weather it can be sustained or if its just another illusionary bubble that will lead to the ultimate and untimely ruination of many a well wishing but, tragically naive investor. Looking at this chart, we can see a nearly 400% increase in the stocks value since March. That means that if you had invested the list price of a Model S into Tesla's stock back in March of this year, you'd be driving a free Model S with triple its value in the stock as of right now. Generally they say that if it seems too good to be true, don't do it, don't drink the Cool Aid. Those bubbles to most fear are more made of marketing and hyperbole. This rapid up hill stock climb is based on kept promises, exceeded expectations, tangible quality, and undeniably better solutions to long inadequately answered problems. The automotive industry is scrambling like frantic ants to get into the EV market with a car that can match the Model S. As of yet none have come near it. GM has not only assigned an internal department to study Tesla from every angle and approach in order to better understand the market disruption caused by its new way of building cars but, it has also vowed to beat Tesla to market with a $30-35k 200 mile per charge EV. That's a hugely bold claim that seems to me unlikely. That would not only spell the death of the Chevy Volt and all of it's development costs but, also kill the up coming Cadillac ELR's chances for success. Those are multi billion dollar boo boos that the bean counters are going to find very difficult to swallow. Given this tact, GM may find itself on the threshold of being its own most disruptive force. The new $120k BMW I8, as radically mouth watering as its gloriously unfurling lines fly about from nose to tail are, and boy, are they, Its saddled with the old school albatross of a dual mode drive train that is exponentially more mechanically complex than it would be if it were completely electric. Sure, its light weight construction is an industrial quantum leap that most certainly should not be discounted. It is in fact historically significant but, BMW with all of their vast research budget have been unable to come up with a better battery or better battery pack configuration. As long as BMW barks up the wrong tree at that problem, Tesla's development trajectory will pull ahead of them and further the gap. So it will be with every manufacturer that continues to bark at that tree with a block for a trunk and pistons for branches and valves for leaves that drinks trillions of tiny gasoline droplets as its rain water is dredged from the most poisonous places both chemically and geo politically. Oh those trees with their howling siren songs, the seduction of their assorted stenches, forever flatulating partially expended petroleum particulates encompassing the entirety of the earths atmosphere. I have loved you. I have lusted for you since childhood's earliest memories, a time when I had no notion of what perils you might pose. I have reveled in exaltation of your highest, intricate beauties and aesthetic feats. How often have I found my self transfixed by you and your mesmerizing motions? I've risked both life and limb with you and lived to laugh in deaths face by your facilitation. I've committed speed crimes with you that road the knifes edge of physical law. You have been an epic blast beyond the dreams of horse and buggies and you've made so many things possible. I've lived inside of you. I've loved knowing you inside and out. You are a filthy girl. I've lived with you deep inside my nose and under my finger nails. So many times you have soiled me. I know that there's a bit of you in my every organ. I've had a great time getting dirty with you but, my sweet heart, you've left soot on my soul and I just have to get clean. Its not just me. soon no one will be able to tolerate your fuck the world crud and collateral damage. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to trade you in for trees that dink sunshine and rain water made from actual rain. A car that can run on sunshine is no longer hippy dippy bull shit or a commie, pinko, pie in the sky pipe dream. Its here and its just the beginning. Its my prediction that in ten years almost every new car on the road will be electric. The world, at least on that front may rejoice as it gazes upon the long awaited spectacle of  fossil fuel's greasy tit shriveling up and blow away like a fart in the wind, consigned to a time when we weren't as wise. Tesla Motors will succeed and they will better the whole world while doing so.

BACK TO MY BLOG