I had a one hour test drive of the Tesla Model S, P85D version recently at the Canary Wharf Motor Expo.
The P85D is the most powerful Tesla, and has an additional motor on the front axle, as well as the rear motor the other Model S cars have. It is therefore 4WD.
The car was left hand drive and appeared fully loaded with options.
Looking at the car, it is attractive and very wide and long. Quality of body and paint work is not premium however, and is below the standard on modern Skodas.
The boot is huge, and in fact big enough to install 2 small rear facing seats in it. The front storage compartment is in fact around the same size as an i3's boot! This car is big.
Legroom is also huge, front and rear. In fact, with the driver's seat fully back, I could only just fully depress the accelerator pedal. However, for a 5 seater big family car, it has a major, and fatal, flaw. Rear headroom is lacking, to the point where my head was hitting the roof - albeit it is better than in the rear of the i8. However, the i8 is a 2+2, not a full 5 (7) seater family car.
The problem is that the Tesla has a badly designed sloping roofline. A terrible idea in a large family car, and truly a case of form over function. Combined with the rear seat being high due to the batteries underneath, it results in inadequate rear headroom.
Sitting in the front, the car is comfortable, spacious and airy. The large tablet style touch screen in the centre looks odd and out of place. Flashy yes, but it makes the car seems gimmicky. The instrument display is fine though.
The interior trim is cheap and flimsy, and not befitting a car in this price range. Nowhere near the quality of even the i3, never mind the i8.
This car had a lot of options, and I liked the height adjustable suspension feature a lot. I wish my i8 had this.
From discussion with Tesla, I would estimate that the real world range of the large battery version of the car, is under 200 miles when driven under similar conditions as my i3 REx test, which gave 79 miles range (i3 BEV estimated range 85 miles). A driver could reasonably extend each of these ranges by 20% if deliberately driving in a frugal manner and in eco mode.
Moving off, the Tesla is smooth, quiet and powerful. It immediately feels very nice indeed to drive. And just as calming and relaxing as the i3 and i8 (in e-drive).
The steering is extremely light, which suits the car. Putting the steering in Sport mode achieves nothing more than making it a little too heavy, as it still offers no true feedback whatsoever - in common with most other modern cars.
The P85D has a well publicised INSANE mode
and I left the car in this mode the entire time. This affects the power delivery and basically gives you maximum power (and minimum range).
Moving off is astonishing At the traffic light Grand Prix, if you accelerate fully, it is quicker than any other car I have driven, unless you use launch control in a combustion car with 4WD.
I had so much fun moving off from the lights. Even motorbikes could barely get rolling by the time the Tesla was 3-4 car lengths ahead. It feels more powerful moving from stationary than when accelerating from a rolling start in fact, because of the instant maximum torque afforded by electric motors.
The manner of acceleration from standstill is similar to the i3 and i8, but more pronounced at the point of moving off, because it is all electric (unlike i8), very powerful, and you get 100% of the torque immediately. Simply fantastic! And I could not get enough of trying its acceleration. It also feels very fast because it moves off so silently, unlike the i8 in Sports mode.
Unlike the P85, the P85D did not have enough torque to spin its wheels on a straight dry road whilst moving. No doubt this was due to its 4WD system.
The acceleration is the single biggest selling point of this car, for me.
I should mention though that I had a long drive in my S1 Exige SC CC the next day, and truthfully, the Exige is far more "insane" that the P85D in insane mode.
The big downside of the Tesla though is that it is over 2 tonnes, and it feels heavy too. Furthermore, it can only run at maximum power for 15 seconds before it has to reduce power! This was confirmed by Tesla to me, and is due to massive heat being generated in the batteries when under maximum power. Its glycol cooling system cannot cope with so much heat at once. In real world driving, this is unlikely to be an issue however.
Grip levels are reasonable, and the car is well balanced when turning. However, under very hard acceleration it transfers so much of its massive weight to the rear that steering response is significantly reduced, and it feels less willing to turn. The P85D was better than the P85 in this respect though, and was also assisted by the fact I drove it mostly at minimum ride height.
It corners with little roll, thanks to its low centre of gravity. This is a heavy car though, and needs to be driven as such. It is not a car to throw around twisty roads. However, its massive power and acceleration do make you wish it were more nimble in its handling.
I did manage to cause it to break traction on a tight fast turn, and its behaviour was to slide the rear wheels a little before quickly stabilising through the electronics. It is very easy to drive with an ability to provoke slight oversteer if you try.
Overall, it is an impressive car that is very nice and enjoyable to drive. In P85D guise, it is also extremely quick, to the point where I cannot think of any car that will beat it off the lights up to around 40mph (not counting launch control activated runs in combustion cars). The fatal flaw in the car however is the rear headroom, which is unacceptable in a family 5/7 seater car.