Forget for a moment that the Tesla Model S’s fuel tank is an aluminum box packed with thousands of battery cells. Ignore the electric motors and Elon Musk’s Captain Planet sermons. Really, just try to wipe what you know about the car from your mind. Even in this context, the Model S still points a spotlight on the auto industry’s complacency.

To drive a Tesla Model S is to reexamine how a car and its driver should interact. The door handles stow flush with the sheetmetal until they glide out to meet your hand as you approach. The stereo and climate system power on the moment you open the door. Who needs a headlight switch when the car is smart enough to know the difference between day and dusk, sun and rain?

Assembly Plant: Fremont, California

Other Models: Model X

Pared to its essentials, the cabin glows with an elegantly modern simplicity. We bristled at touch screens until Tesla’s sharp, 17-inch pane rendered buttons large enough to use at speed on a crumbling interstate. Periodically, the Model S learns new tricks via a ­software update it had downloaded while you were away.

View Photos JAMES LIPMAN

But Tesla didn’t just reimagine how a key should work or the role of software in a car. As traditional dealers erect roadblocks for Tesla’s factory-owned stores, Model S buyers should celebrate the ability to escape the brick-and-mortar experi­ence altogether. It is as easy to buy a car on Tesla’s website as it is to shop Amazon. Configure the car you want, make a $2500 deposit, and your Tesla arrives a couple of months later.

“Still the future as seen from 2012.” –M. Duff

The Model S is the only electric vehicle with the driving range to make sense in American suburbs or on our backbreaking commutes. The 70-kWh models—in either rear- or four-wheel drive—slip under our $80,000 base-price ceiling and cover more than 200 miles per charge. All electric cars come with the convenience of refueling at home, but only Tesla makes long-distance travel possible with its nationwide network of free, high-voltage superchargers.

The Model S is also the rare electric vehicle that embraces our most basic philosophy: Driving should be engaging. The car steers, corners, and rides with a competence that seems perfected over decades of focused suspension development rather than a few short years as a Silicon Valley startup. The 70D accelerates in near silence with the fury of a redline clutch dump. It springs off the line with 387 pound-feet of instantaneous torque and follows a seamless, shift-free trajectory to triple-digit speeds. Lift off the accelerator to harvest electrons and sail to a stop without ever touching the friction brakes. You learn to drive it with one pedal, using and recapturing electricity with the pace of traffic and the flow of the road. After a week piloting a Model S, it feels strange to drive anything else.

View Photos JAMES LIPMAN

We live in a time where choosing among an Audi, a BMW, and a Mercedes can feel like picking from French vanilla, natural vanilla, or extra-creamy vanilla. Electric propulsion threatens to make cars even more homogenized, and yet Tesla has perfected the art of making the intangibles palpable. It’s the same approach that makes an Apple iThing so much more desirable than a thing from Nokia. With the Model S, Tesla has advanced the electric car from a compromised penalty box into something fun, fast, and desirable. What Musk f­igured out is that car buyers will always be willing to pay for per­formance and style, no matter what form they might take.

How We’d Build It

We would choose the four-wheel-drive Model S 70D. To this we would add Autopilot semi-autonomous capability ($2500) because our commutes are long and boring. We’d opt for the Smart Air Suspension ($2500) for ride-height adjustability. We’d replace the flat standard seats with tan next-generation seats ($2500). And they would be heated, too, thanks to the Subzero Weather package ($1000). Slap on some Midnight Silver Metallic paint ($1000) and we arrive at a total of $85,700.

Cloud-Based Commuting

Tesla’s Silicon Valley mentality means the cars are never quite finished, even years after they’ve left the factory. The company’s most significant software updates, shown here, mean a Model S purchased in 2012 is a different car today.

June 2012: First Model S deliveries.

October 9, 2012: The Model S now creeps forward when the driver lifts off the brake. A mobile app allows owners to remotely monitor charging, vent windows, lock and unlock doors, and precool or preheat the cabin.

November 30, 2012: Tesla adds voice commands. The door handles now automatically extend as the driver approaches the vehicle with the key fob. A new “range” driving mode reduces the amount of energy consumed by the climate control.

June 18, 2013: The navigation system now displays Supercharger locations and previously visited chargers. When directed to preheat or precool the cabin, the car will use energy from the charger rather than the battery.

March 24, 2014: Tesla adds hill-start assist.

September 11, 2014: The air-suspension system now remembers locations where the driver previously raised the car and increases the ride height automatically on approach. Owners can use voice commands to report bugs to Tesla, sending a snapshot of their car’s status and screens to the home office. Navigation directions now take traffic into consideration, and a new in-car calendar syncs with a phone to display upcoming appointments.

December 7, 2014: Holding the trunk button on the key fob opens the charge port.

January 8, 2015: Adaptive cruise control, automatic high-beams, and forward-collision warning activated on cars fitted with Tesla’s Autopilot hardware.

March 28, 2015: Blind-spot warning and automatic emergency braking enabled on Autopilot-equipped cars. A valet mode limits the car to 107 horses and 70 mph when active. A new route planner suggests charging stops on long trips and warns when the car is out of range of chargers.

April 10, 2015: Top speed of 85D models rises to 155 mph while the zero-to-60 drops from 5.2 seconds to 4.4.

October 14, 2015: Tesla activates additional Autopilot features, including a self-steering function and automated parallel parking. Tesla redesigns the interfaces for the gauge cluster and touch screen and adds a brake-hold system.

2016 10Best Cars: Return to Overview

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