Oooh, TESLA!Tesla Model S ‘D’: Four wheel drive, supercar performance
The McLaren F1 is the elephant in the room of any new supercar launch. Two decades old it might be, but few modern hypercars are as eminently likeable and interactive as Gordon Murray and Peter Stevens’ clean-sheet performance legend.
It takes a brave company to compare itself to such a car, but Tesla Motors is one of them. And with a claimed 3.2-second 0-60mph time, the new Tesla Model S P85D (a less evocative name than ‘F1’, admittedly) exactly matches the McLaren’s oft-quoted acceleration benchmark.
It’s all down to the Model S’s new dual-motor setup. Previous examples of Tesla’s saloon (hardly slow themselves) have sent power to the rear wheels. By fitting a motor at the front axle too the new car offers greater traction and more surprisingly, greater range.
Ordinary all-wheel drive systems benefit from greater traction at the expense of more weight and increased drivetrain friction, detrimental to efficiency. As an all-electric vehicle with no central propshaft, Tesla says the new dual-motor Model S splits current from the battery to each motor as required, giving each less work to do than the regular car’s single motor and boosting extra-urban range by ten miles, for a predicted total of 320 miles under European test conditions.
The new all-wheel drive setup is available on both 60kWh and 85kWh battery packs, while Tesla’s McLaren-beating acceleration is the preserve of the 682bhp, 686lb ft Performance model. Top speed doesn’t quite match the 240mph McLaren, at 155mph, but that’s still 25mph more than the single-motor P85 can manage.
Other Model S changes include an ‘Autopilot’ that finally allows the electric saloon to approach its more established rivals on active safety tech. Active cruise control, automatic braking and similar will roll out with all new Model S models, and Tesla has tweaked seat comfort, interior trim and refinement in its program of continual improvements.
There’s no UK pricing just yet, but in the United States the 60kWh D will cost $4000 (£2500) more than the two-wheel drive car, while the P85D costs $14,600 (£9100) more than its rear-driven counterpart. That equates to on-the-road costs of around £53,000 and £78,000 respectively.
Orders are already open, while Tesla says European deliveries will begin a few months after North American cars hit the streets in February 2015.
No, thanks!! I think I'll stick to mine!! 
