The people who buy Teslas usually do it out of two reasons: they either want to switch to an electric vehicle and, as you can tell, the ones made by Tesla are the best ones around, or they want a car that can smoke a traffic light drag race better than any other.
But even those who are driven by the first of the two motifs will eventually come to appreciate (some might even fear it) the EVs' ability to sink its wheels into the tarmac and just make that famed electric torque push the car forward like it had a hot pepper up its non-existent tailpipe.
Musk did say that making ugly and boring electric cars won't do any service to promoting this type of alternative propulsion system, and we all understood what he meant when he launched the Model S. The stylish sedan had the looks of a Maserati and the off the line performances of a hypercar while also being able to seat five adults and two kids at the same time.
Even four years later the Model S still looks good, and it doesn't seem like the upcoming Model 3 has what it takes to snatch the title of the sexiest EV on the market. If anyone, the Jaguar I-Pace might make a claim there, but we're still judging based on a concept, so we'll have to see what the Brits put on the market.
So we know the Model S looks good - this one here with the chameleonic wrap might not be to everyone's taste - and it goes fast. But what if instead of going forward, you need to reverse? What speed will the electric sedan do then?
Tesla-dedicated YouTuber DÆrik sure is glad you asked because he has just the video for you. He goes to an empty parking lot and, after making sure there's nobody around to get in the way, he puts the Mercedes-Benz stalk into Reverse and hits the accelerator pedal. Gently at first, and slamming it on the second attempt.
To say the result is far from the car's performance when in Drive is putting it mildly. Apparently, Tesla didn't think you'd be in any rush while going backward, so it limited the top speed to a certain figure. Which, come to think of it, it kind of needed to do because, given there are no gears, the Model S could have gone just as quickly. From here to videos of Teslas beating their opponents while reversing the entire length of the drag strip would have been just a matter of hours.
"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie) Full profile
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