Elon Musk was born in S. Africa, moved to America, co-founded PayPal (made a fortune), co-founded SpaceX (sounds like what it is, develops space vehicles, currently making runs to and from the Space Station), co-founded Tesla Motors (named after Nikola, see above.)
Tesla Motors, based in Palo Alto, California, designs, manufactures, and sells electric cars. So far they have produced a roadster and a sedan (Model S) and will be starting deliveries in 2014 of an SUV (Model X.) They are not a subsidiary of another car company, they are a brand new company. Tesla is not the model name, it is like Ford or Honda. (I may be over-explaining here, but people aren't really sure what I mean when I say Tesla. After all, when was the last time there was a new car company that wasn't from Asia? Never mind, just googled American automobile manufacturers, at least eleven have been started since 2000. Apparently I am just not in the know.
The point of all this, though, is that Tesla cars exist and I will be getting one!! And it will be dark green, for those of you who care about such things.
Laurence put down a deposit before Christmas (as a gift) so that I could test drive one, which I did in early January. Now, unlike other car manufacturers, Tesla does not have a lot of dealerships. They have one in Palo Alto. In Colorado their equivalent is a storefront inside (yes, inside, near Stride Rite and the food court) the Park Meadows Mall. They have a white Tesla Model S sitting there plugged in. To test drive you go out into the parking lot and in the covered area there is a charging station and a silver Model S plugged in and ready to go. Of course it was the performance version (I will be getting the regular model) and can go from 0-60 mph in 4.4 seconds. (The regular model does it in 5.6 seconds. I do wonder if I might need that extra 1.2 seconds one day, but Laurence is fairly emphatic that I won't. Sigh.) It is an amazing car. Quick and nimble. I fell in love with it, despite Laurence heckling me from the back seat, and I quote, "Oh my God! You're driving one of the fastest sedans in America at 30 mph!" In my defense, we were on regular roads and I was driving someone else's car. Highway driving was crowded and moving at 50 mph so what did he expect me to do? Of course the person from Tesla was also urging me to go faster, so maybe Laurence had a point.
Anyway, even at 30 mph it's a fun car. And, with the back seats folded down it has enough room for my horse show trunk. And with a 300 mile range I can make it up to Estes Park (for the big show) and back. And when you approach the car with fob in hand the door handles, which have been retracted for aerodynamic reasons, slide out. And when you open the hood it is just like a Volkswagon Bug, no engine! Just trunk space. See? Even when not moving the car is fun.
So after driving the car and loving it and tallying up the pros and cons and adding in a healthy dose of why not? I opted to get one. Of course, nothing in this world is straight forward. I had to configure my car. This entailed a trip back to the mall to talk to the ever helpful Tesla personnel and figure out if I needed the bigger battery (yes, major range anxiety here) or the Active Air Suspension (again yes, you push a button and the car raises up two inches!) or the Sound Studio Package (no, not sure I could hear the difference in quality and also do the Car Talk guys really need to be on 12 separate speakers?)
But then we had to figure out the color. Here is a major problem with Tesla not having a dealership, there are no cars on the lot to check out the colors. All they have are these color panels. We knew what the white and the silver (actually a lovely soft grey) looked like, but what about the blue or the red or the green? A paint chip does not tell you much about what your wall will look like once painted and that's how we felt about the color panels. The Tesla person who was helping us handed us several panels and pointed us towards the door so out we went to the parking lot to see how the colors looked in the sun. Then Laurence had the brilliant idea of matching the colors to actual cars in the parking lot. We found a Mazda that was close to the dark grey, and a Honda that was similar enough to the red, and several makes that had a very close match to the blue. We couldn't find the green and we'd probably still be looking if security had not driven up and wanted to know what we were doing. We explained but he still looked at us funny.
Back inside we returned the panels and sat in front of the computer to configure the car. We settled on (and by settled on I mean I chose) green (Laurence preferred the silver) and picked out all our options. Then we pushed the button and waited for the estimated date of delivery. Everything we'd read and everyone we'd talked to had a waiting time of at least six months, but it came back Feb/Mar. Yippee!!!
So then I went home and waited and waited and waited for Tesla to call. This weekend I logged onto the web site and they had posted my delivery window dates. Between March 2nd and March 16th the car will arrive!
So now I'm at waiting and waiting and waiting. Laurence and I already cleaned the garage in preparation for the electrician (to install the outlet needed) and in anticipation of the new car. I have gone on the Tesla web site and read all the forums. I have looked up who Elon Musk is. I have annoyed my brother by pointing out that I will have a Tesla soon and he will not. I really must find something constructive to do.
I think my car will never get here.
Anyway, even at 30 mph it's a fun car. And, with the back seats folded down it has enough room for my horse show trunk. And with a 300 mile range I can make it up to Estes Park (for the big show) and back. And when you approach the car with fob in hand the door handles, which have been retracted for aerodynamic reasons, slide out. And when you open the hood it is just like a Volkswagon Bug, no engine! Just trunk space. See? Even when not moving the car is fun.
So after driving the car and loving it and tallying up the pros and cons and adding in a healthy dose of why not? I opted to get one. Of course, nothing in this world is straight forward. I had to configure my car. This entailed a trip back to the mall to talk to the ever helpful Tesla personnel and figure out if I needed the bigger battery (yes, major range anxiety here) or the Active Air Suspension (again yes, you push a button and the car raises up two inches!) or the Sound Studio Package (no, not sure I could hear the difference in quality and also do the Car Talk guys really need to be on 12 separate speakers?)
But then we had to figure out the color. Here is a major problem with Tesla not having a dealership, there are no cars on the lot to check out the colors. All they have are these color panels. We knew what the white and the silver (actually a lovely soft grey) looked like, but what about the blue or the red or the green? A paint chip does not tell you much about what your wall will look like once painted and that's how we felt about the color panels. The Tesla person who was helping us handed us several panels and pointed us towards the door so out we went to the parking lot to see how the colors looked in the sun. Then Laurence had the brilliant idea of matching the colors to actual cars in the parking lot. We found a Mazda that was close to the dark grey, and a Honda that was similar enough to the red, and several makes that had a very close match to the blue. We couldn't find the green and we'd probably still be looking if security had not driven up and wanted to know what we were doing. We explained but he still looked at us funny.
Back inside we returned the panels and sat in front of the computer to configure the car. We settled on (and by settled on I mean I chose) green (Laurence preferred the silver) and picked out all our options. Then we pushed the button and waited for the estimated date of delivery. Everything we'd read and everyone we'd talked to had a waiting time of at least six months, but it came back Feb/Mar. Yippee!!!
So then I went home and waited and waited and waited for Tesla to call. This weekend I logged onto the web site and they had posted my delivery window dates. Between March 2nd and March 16th the car will arrive!
So now I'm at waiting and waiting and waiting. Laurence and I already cleaned the garage in preparation for the electrician (to install the outlet needed) and in anticipation of the new car. I have gone on the Tesla web site and read all the forums. I have looked up who Elon Musk is. I have annoyed my brother by pointing out that I will have a Tesla soon and he will not. I really must find something constructive to do.
I think my car will never get here.
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