For a car with such a radical powertrain, its styling is strangely generic. To our eyes it blends elements of the Jaguar XF, Aston Rapide and new Ford Mondeo. It doesn’t look like an electric car - there’s even a dummy radiator grille. “We are designing a car and building a brand around a powertrain that’s hard for people to take on board,” says chief designer Franz von Holzhausen. “The car needed to look familiar and be easy to accept. In the future we can be more experimental.”

The most notable feature of the exterior is its size. It’s 0.4in longer than a Porsche Panamera and a full 3in wider. The latter could be a problem in the UK and given the Tesla’s urban credentials, it’s a curious oversight.

Inside, attention focuses on a 17in touchscreen display that looks like a giant iPad and controls everything from the air-conditioning to the air suspension. The quality is acceptable but for a brand determined to do its own thing, it’s a surprise to find stalks and switches pinched from the Mercedes parts bin.

As you'd expect given its scale, there’s room inside for five, plus the option of a couple of rearward facing jump seats in the boot. There’s a second boot in the nose, which Tesla calls the frunk for ‘front trunk’. Under the floor there’s a 4in deep battery stack, while the electric motor resides on the rear axle. There are no plans for a four-wheel drive Model S.

The double wishbone front and multi-link rear suspension has been developed under the stewardship of Graham Sutherland, a Brit who spent over 20 years at Lotus. Air suspension is standard on all bar the entry-level models and you can manually adjust the ride height.