2012 Tesla Model S Electric Sedan

Tesla Motors let the visuals do the bragging for a change. At its stand at theDetroit auto show, a prominent sign reported 8,825,532 miles logged by the 1500 Tesla Roadsters delivered to customers in 30 countries. Video screens portrayed a svelte Model S hatchback sedan accumulating test miles on public roads. But the centerpiece on display is a completed Model S body-in-white, battery pack, and powertrain standing tall for all the world’s skeptics to study.

Instead of the usual incredible future prognostications by Tesla Motors chairman Elon Musk, the dialogue was more of a progress report by chief engineer Peter Rawlinson with backup provided by key members of his technical team.

Rawlinson stated that alpha prototypes of the Model S are running and body design is frozen in anticipation of meeting the previously stated target: deliveries commencing next year. A $5000 refundable deposit will reserve a place on Tesla’s Model S customer list. Prices start at $49,500 for a base model (assuming that all federal/state tax credits and rebates will still be applicable).

Inside the Model S

The Model S’s unibody is an assembly of aluminum stampings, eight castings, and extrusions joined with an assortment of adhesives, rivets, and welds. High-strength boron-steel reinforcements are also used in key areas: the bumpers, the cross-car steering-column support, and inside the B-pillars to enhance side-impact performance. According to Tesla’s (and ex-Ford body chief) Rick Haas, the company expects to handle metal stamping, plastic molding, and body-framing tasks at its Fremont, California, assembly plant with casting and extruding responsibilities farmed out to appropriate suppliers.

The Model S is an unusually roomy sedan in large part due to its architecture and the density of its energy-storage and power-delivery systems. A four-inch-deep aluminum box running most of the car’s length and from sill to sill houses 7000 cylindrical lithium-ion laptop batteries. Coolant circulates through this electrical storehouse and the box makes a significant contribution to the car’s rigidity and collision performance. The body sills consist of full-length aluminum extrusions that provide ample structural stiffness and convenient attachment points for the battery box.

A cast-aluminum crossmember supporting the front suspension and electrically assisted rack-and-pinion steering gear is rigidly attached to the body structure. At the rear, there’s another cast subframe connected to the body through four rubber-isolated mounts. The AC drive motor, single-speed transaxle, and power inverter are integrated into a single cylindrical assembly attached to the subframe through three rubber isolation mounts. The front suspension is a two-control-arm design while the rear is a multilink arrangement with an air spring at each corner of the chassis. This show chassis was equipped with Brembo disc-brake components.

Energy Density

Engineer Nick Sampson revealed that the total energy capacity is 80 to 90 kWh, or more than three times the Nissan Leaf’s capacity. Three battery options will be offered to provide a claimed operating range of 160, 230, or 300 miles. Both the number of batteries and the individual cell capacity will be varied to achieve this impressive range, not to mention a claimed 0-to-60-mph acceleration time of 5.6 seconds. Recharge time varies from 45 minutes for an 80-percent boost using a high-voltage outlet to 18 or more hours on a typical 120-volt tap.

The seating array is two adults in front, three in back, plus a provision for two small children in rear-facing safety seats located in the forward portion of the rear cargo compartment. A large hatch provides access to the voluminous rear trunk and in base form, the Model S provides 30 cubic feet of luggage between its two trunk compartments. Since the heavy components of the driveline are positioned behind the rear-axle centerline, the Model S has a front-to-rear weight distribution of 46/54 percent.

Last year’s initial public stock offering, buy-ins by Daimler-Benz, Toyota, and Panasonic, and a $465-million loan provided by the U.S. Department of Energy have Tesla Motors charging toward its ambitious goals. The engineering department is well-staffed and experts responsible for finance, marketing, and publicity are in place. The ex-NUMMI manufacturing plant, which is where this sedan will be built, is a beehive of activity. While hopes are high for a smooth Model S introduction, we’ll need several more progress installments to know whether the world’s first pure-electric premium sedan will succeed. View Photo Gallery

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2012 Tesla Model S: Riding Shotgun - Car news and review photo

Tesla isn’t ready to let journalists drive its new Model S, but it did give the media a chance to ride around the grounds of its Fremont, California, factory in beta prototypes of the all-electric luxury sedan with a company employee at the wheel. First impressions?

The Model S is a big car, 196 inches long, or almost exactly the same length as aJaguar XF, to which it bears more than a passing resemblance. The Model S is significantly wider, though, at 77.3 inches compared to 73.9 for the Jag. Actually, that width is not only significantly wider than the Jag, but significantly wider than a Mercedes-Benz S-class and most anything else on the market that doesn’t have off-road pretensions. A flat floor helps create a sense of minivan-like openness, but the large cargo area—which, like a 1970s station wagon, can be fitted with two rear-facing kid-sized seats—intrudes somewhat on cabin space.

There’s no excess head- or legroom inside, mainly because the flat floor is rather high due to the massive battery tray that lies beneath. Taller rear passengers rub their scalps on the headliner, while the front passengers have to sit somewhat close to the dash to give those behind adequate knee clearance.

The Apple (Imposter) of My Eye

The Model S has the dashboard Apple would have designed, with just two visible physical buttons, for the hazard lights and to release the glove-box door. Every other function that isn’t handled by steering-column stalks, from climate to radio to navigation to cell-phone and internet connectivity, is concentrated in a huge touch-sensitive flat-panel display in the center of the dash. It’s as if the whole car is run off an iPad glued to the dash. A bank of four USB ports along the bottom allows you to plug in various devices for file sharing and recharging. The gauges are likewise virtual, with a central speedometer and a running graph indicating power consumption. We’re told that the display in the prototype is different from what will eventually appear in production cars. The final version will use a capacitive touch screen, the type of technology also found in the iPad, iPhone, and most similar smartphones.

The car we rode in was a Signature Series model, a loaded-up trim that will be applied to the first 1000 cars built. The Signature Series won’t be cheap: Company execs hint that it could cost as much as $20,000 more than the Model S’s advertised base price of $57,400. As such, it was painted in Signature Red and had a full Zuma White leather interior, with cowhide wrapping the dash and even the A- and B-pillars. Most important, this special introductory offer will include a stouter battery pack that almost doubles the range of the base car, increasing maximum travel distance from 160 miles to 300.

If the copious use of animal hide makes your inner environmentalist flinch, take comfort in the fact that cloth will be available, and the wood-like dash trim of the Signature Series actually is pressed banana leaf taken from the forest floor after it has already fallen. You can also spec piano-black or lacewood trim, the latter gray and mottled and, yes, made of trees.

Promising Performance

The car uses a current Mercedes-Benz steering column only thinly disguised by a Tesla-branded wheel, so the park/drive/reverse selector stalk on the right and cruise and signal/wiper stalks on the left are very familiar. In motion, the 4150-pound car seems much lighter than it is, leaping quickly off the line as the 362-hp electric motor’s 306 lb-ft of torque are available from rest. Like most other electric cars, the Model S uses a single-speed gear-reduction transmission. Tesla pegs the 0-to-60-mph sprint at 5.6 seconds, the top speed at 130 mph.

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The electric-assist steering rack seemed to respond eagerly to steering inputs, and there was hardly any body roll around the factory’s banked dog-bone test track. Our driver, development engineer Graham Sutherland, formerly of Lotus, claims that this is due to the concentration of mass in the center. The battery pack may weigh 600 pounds, but it lies at the bottom of the car, as does the motor. Sutherland figures that the center of gravity will be 16 to 16.5 inches high once final measurements are done. That figure is substantially lower than all but the lowest ground-sucking sports cars; the lowest CG height in our recent test of thebest-handling cars for less than $40,000 was the Mazda Miata’s 19.0 inches.

Even with its suspension compressed in the banked turns, the Model S rode smoothly, soaking up the many fissures in the plant’s old and cracking pavement. Chief engineer Peter Rawlinson says the low center of gravity helps out here, too, allowing the Model S to run much thinner anti-roll bars than would be normal on a two-ton sports sedan. That helps reduce impact shock and ride harshness.

Feels Like a Keeper

Though it may be just a preproduction “beta,” the sample car had tight panel gaps and a quiet cabin free of squeaks or rattles. This is even more important than usual in an auditory environment that offers no engine rumble for cover, just the distant whine of the electric propulsion unit.

Despite being electric, the Model S looks like a conventional car, with a long hood capped by a blacked-out snout that gives the impression of a large radiator grille. In fact, just three small heat exchangers sit behind the front bumper; one is down low in the center for motor and battery coolant and one lies below each of the headlights for cabin cooling. A computer-controlled shutter system blocks off the radiator openings when they’re not needed.

Chief designer Franz von Holzhausen says the Model S has a conventional “face” and proportions—never mind that freakish width—to make customers who might be cross-shopping the car against a BMW or an Audi more comfortable with the Tesla. Once the brand is established, he hopes to push the design more to take advantage of the unconventional powertrain, and “expand the notion of what a car is supposed to look like.”

Similar to Traditional Luxury Cars, but Very Different

The hatchback Model S will have a range of luxury-car options when it debuts, including a sunroof, the leather interior, and an air suspension. Also, buyers will be able to select from three battery sizes. The battery on the base $57,400 Model S will provide a 160-mile range, while Tesla says a 230-mile range will be available for perhaps another $10,000 (a figure yet to be finalized and which may include other package extras). At the top of the line, a 300-mile range will cost perhaps $20,000 extra and open up the option of special aerodynamic wheels that stretch range to 320 miles.

While those are some big leaps in pricing, a 300-mile car, at about $77,000, undercuts the base price of the Tesla’s most direct competitor, the equally all-new $96,895 Fisker Karma, by almost $20,000. They’re different beasts—the Fisker, with a gas engine onboard to recharge the batteries, is conceptually more like a Chevrolet Volt—but both present an interesting and very attractive way to experience a possible future of transportation. View Photo Gallery

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