Tesla Model S Driver Tries Willow Springs Track Day

Electric cars may not be the most adrenaline-inducing to watch on a race track, but they sure are effective, especially over short set distances like Pikes Peak, where the change in altitude gives them real purpose – all-electrics produce peak power regardless of how high you are from sea level. Read more »

Tesla Battery Swap Takes 90 Seconds, Technology Will Come This Year

Tesla Motors is doing all it can to make the electric car a more user-friendly proposition. One of the greatest disadvantages of EVs is battery-charging time, which takes a lot more than filling up a conventional car with petrol. Tesla Motors has been working on a solution to this problem and came up with a battery swapping technology.

Mind you, it’s not a novel idea, as the now-defunct Better Place company was the first to implement it. However, Tesla has great confidence in its technology, which was demonstrated to hundreds of owners of Tesla EVs last night. Swapping the depleted battery of a Model S takes just over 90 seconds, less than half the time it takes to refill a gas tank.

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Norwegians Conduct Cold Weather Test of Tesla Model S, Find Range Satisfactory [w/Video]

It was only a matter of time before the Tesla Model S made its way into European hands, and after first arriving in Germany and the Netherlands, they have now arrived in the hands of the EV-loving Norwegians.

This has allowed Autofil Magazine to take an 85 kWh Model S and drive it from the country’s capital, Oslo, to Geilo, located some 243 km (151 miles) away, without any sort of right pedal restraint – the reviewer would drive it like any other regular car.

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How Many Quarter-Mile Races Can the Tesla Model S Do On One Charge?

Fears regarding the Tesla Model S’ one-charge range don’t only concern the more eco-minded drivers who are set to achieve the maximum range out of it, because those with a faster driving style who also happen to like racing the classic quarter mile also have to be catered for.

Now, the crew over at DragTimes wanted to know how many 400-meter drag races can be performed with a full battery and good weather conditions.

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Vossen Puts 22-Inch Concave Wheels on Tesla Model S [w/Video]

The Tesla Model S is no doubt a good-looking car, but that doesn’t mean it can’t look even better. This is what Miami-based Vossen Wheels specializes in, with the aftermarket company managing to make the electric sedan look fresher by simply fitting 22-inch VVS-CV1 concave wheels.

The Matte Graphite wheels, sized 22x9 at the front and 22x10.5 at the rear, complement the light blue paint of the car and even though their size is huge, the look of the Model S is not ruined. On the contrary, Vossen’s wheels give it a more dynamic and sportier appearance.

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Elon Musk Announces Tesla’s Plan to Cover the US with Supercharger Network [w/Video]

Tesla’s Superchargers are an excellent way to try to dispel prospective buyers’ fears regarding the range and charging opportunities, and they offer free fast charging to all Model S owners. Currently limited to eight such stations in California and New York, the network is set to grow exponentially within the next two years, according to a video announcement by Elon Musk. Read more »

Watch the Tesla Model S Reach its Top Speed of 133MPH or 213KM/H

The Tesla Model S is turning into a success story for the Silicon Valley-based automaker, having received praise for many qualities and not only for being a good EV, but a good all-round practical car. All owners of the all-electric sedan seem to be into their cars, and I haven’t seen a vehicle catch people’s attention like this in a while, especially for a relatively new brand like Tesla. Read more »

Consumer Reports Goes Wild with Praise and Drifty Joy Over the Tesla Model S

The Consumer Reports test team is not easily impressed, and most of their opinions on cars are a balanced mix of pros and cons - one of the reasons why their reviews are so well-regarded. However, now that they’ve put their hands on their own all-electric Tesla Model S to test, they’re really struggling to say anything bad about it…

It's is not the full review, as this will be posted at a later date, once the car goes through the whole battery of CR tests, but that doesn't mean they haven't done a lot with the car so far.

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Tesla Asked Customers to Pay for Cars Early to Help Report Its First-Ever Quarterly Profit

Tesla Motors recently announced that it recorded its first-ever quarterly profit, a very important step for the company that took government loans to develop an relatively affordable electric saloon. Whether the Model S is a truly affordable EV is another question, especially now that Tesla has pulled the plug on the 40 kWh-battery variant of the Model S – which was also the cheapest.

Coming back to the profit reported by Tesla for the first quarter of this year, it seems that the company pulled a few strings to make it happen. According to a report from Bloomberg, Tesla urged customers who had reserved cars, but had not yet made their payments, to do so.

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Startup Vehicle Sharing Scheme Buys 100 Tesla Model S EVs

The Tesla Model S, and especially the 85 kWh battery pack version, is very close to being a no-compromise EV. There are even some performance cars out there, with conventional gasoline engines, which have less range than it has, due to the installation of very small gas tanks – the idea is that this is all relative information, and it depends a great deal on how a vehicle is used.

Still the Model S is an expensive car, and it is out of the reach of many consumers. Now, though, drivers in Las Vegas will have a chance to drive one of 100 that have just been ordered from Tesla, by startup vehicle sharing company Downtown Project.

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Motor Trend Pits Past Against Future with Classic Citroën DS vs New Tesla Model S

The Citroën DS is without a doubt one of the most recognizable cars ever made. Its distinctive shape, penned by Flaminio Bertoni, and the array of advanced technologies, made it the most iconic car in the brand's history.

The DS was way ahead of its time, with its self-leveling hydro-pneumatic suspension that offered a “magic carpet” ride was the highlight among the many innovations it brought to world of automobiles.

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Do You Really Need a 17-Inch Touchscreen Display in Your Car? Tesla Thinks So...

The single most important standout feature of the Tesla Model S's interior is the gigantic 17-inch touchscreen display. Some people don't even have screens that big on their laptops, let alone in their car, so it does attract a fair bit of attention. Imagine ferrying passengers around in your Model S – you'd be flooded with questions from people with wide eyes not believing that there are no real buttons to speak of inside your car. Read more »

Tesla Teaches Firefighters How To Safely Rip Apart an EV

Firefighters and rapid response units have been tearing apart wrecked cars (in the event of a very serious accident like this recent Corvette Z06 crash) in order to safely extract their precious human cargo in the same way for decades.

They knew they had to steer clear of fuel lines and electrical components, but aside from that, they had free range to chop up the cars as they saw fit.

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This is What a Tesla Model S EV Burnout Looks and Sounds Like

While fiddling around with Tesla's new battery-powered Model S, the crew at Road&Track magazine wanted to have their 6 seconds of fame fun by performing something that looks, but never really sounds, like a proper burnout.

The result? As one commentator named Jason Pischke put it on the publication's YouTube channel, "Well that was... ummm, I'm just going to go with awkward".

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New Tesla Model S Stuns 2013 BMW M5 in 100mph – 160km/h Drag Race

Just like cars powered by conventional, internal combustion engines (ICE), electric vehicles or EVs have their pros and cons.

While most people wouldn't consider speed as a strong point of electric cars, truth is, under certain circumstances and depending, of course, on the setup and several other factors, EVs can better their ICE counterparts, one reason being that electric motors produce all of their torque instantly.

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AutoNation CEO Says Tesla’s Model S is The Best Electric Car He’s Driven, Superior to Fisker Karma

Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk says he wants to shift 5,000 examples of the new Model S electric saloon this year and four times that in 2013. It's a very ambitious target so, naturally, any endorsement is more than welcome; especially if it comes from the nation’s largest auto retailer.

Labeling it, “a first-rate car” and “the best electric car I've ever driven", does the job nicely, thank you. That’s exactly what AutoNation Inc. CEO Mike Jackson said after driving the car during his visit to a showroom near Tesla’s HQ on August 15, according to a Bloomberg News report.

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