Why is it that most electric cars look like they’ve been designed by five year olds? The Gee Wiz, the Nice MyCar, the Sakura Maranello 4, all cars that would, without the benefit of CGI, fit quite comfortably into the next Pixar Cars Movie. Why? When electric car designers roll up their sleeves and sit in front of a drawing board, do they suddenly regress to an age where trees look like lollipops and sheep bear a striking resemblance to the clouds above them. Funky, innovative, ground breaking designs that are hardly ever practical. That was until the launch of the Tesla Model S.

Now many people will point to the Tesla Roadster. That doesn’t look like it’s been designed by a child. And no it was wasn’t, it was designed with help from Lotus. A beautiful looking car without a doubt, but hardly practical. In fact rumours abound over the internet that Governor Schwarzenegger – one time android and full time green warrior – would like to return his roadster as he has difficulty fitting in it.

So why is the Model S any different? Put simply, it looks fantastic and it is extremely practical. Designed by former Mazda man Franz Von Holzhausen, the Model S would look just as at home on the streets of London as it would in the Hollywood Hills. Drawing inspiration no doubt from the likes of Jaguar and BMW, The Model S has distinctly European looks and will appeal to a worldwide market, which is more than can be said for many other “normal” American cars.

With a price tag of just under $50,000 after a $7,500 tax rebate the Model S may look slightly expensive, but if this price is achievable it will only be $4,000 more than a BMW 5 Series 528i, certainly not a price that could prove prohibitive. So what do you get for your hard earned cash? The base model will come equipped with a battery pack with a 160 mile range, add more cells and a range of 230 miles can be achieved, move up to the high capacity battery pack and the Tesla Model S will offer a range up to 300 miles. Tesla have also announced plans to allow owners of base models the ability to rent higher capacity battery packs when they need to make longer journeys, although it is not yet that clear how long it will take to change batteries. Charging time could be as little as 45 minutes on a fast charge, although a full charge is more likely to be in the region of four hours, making overnight charging the best option. Read the rest of this entry »