Tesla Model S Owner: It's Better Than An Aston Martin
2 comments, 2 called-out + Comment now
+ Comment now Move up http://i.forbesimg.com t Move down
Forget Iron Man, Elon Musk's Latest Incarnation Goes Fifty Shades of Grey Hannah Elliott
Forbes Staff
Elon Musk On The Biggest Week Of His Life Hannah Elliott
Forbes Staff
Elon Musk: Tesla Model S Is About 'Breaking A Spell' Hannah Elliott
Forbes Staff
Driving With Elon Musk: Bel Air To SpaceX, Billionaire Style Hannah Elliott
Forbes Staff
Courtesy: www.backtoreality.com
Did you catch the party at the Tesla factory last week in Fremont, Calif.? The mayor was there. So was Elon Musk. And about 1,000 guests hyped up on samba music and George Blankenship raving about the first deliveries of the electric Model S.
Bill Lee was there, too. He actually got one.
“The car is unbelievable,” Lee says. He got the sixth one off the line, a black Model S Founders Signature Performance Edition. “I’ll be honest with you. I thought this was going to be just a phenomenal electric car but when I started playing with that user interface and that big screen in there, I was blown away.”
Yes, but will it beat an Aston Martin—is it faster and more luxe? I ask. Musk had promised it would last year.
“Absolutely,” Lee says. “One hundred percent guaranteed. When people go out and actually get behind the wheel of this thing, they’re going to be. blown. away.”
Lee may be a bit biased—he was an early investor in Tesla, and he’s been friends with the South African inventor since the mid-1990s. But Lee did pay the full retail price for his car and has owned a handful of other high-end whips before now. He knows what’s what.
“It’s the best sedan that’s out there,” he says.
An angel investor who has funded Zaarly, Yammer and SpaceX, Lee splits his time between Silicon Valley and Los Angeles, with a lot of traveling thrown in on the side. He will park his new daily driver at the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco where they’ve installed a charger specifically for electric cars. He says charging it for a couple of hours at a time will do enough to keep him moving.
Lee has plenty of practice driving electric vehicles. He drove the Tesla Roadster for years until the Model S came out, and he’s already got a deposit down on the “falcon-wing” Model X SUV.
“I remember when gas was only $30 dollars a barrel, and everyone just thought it was the dumbest thing to go after electric cars,” he told me. “Oil was not at $100 bucks a barrel where it is today, and EV cars were just the faintest thing on the horizon. It was, ‘Oh you’re just a tech guy doing this in Silicon Valley.’”
The car does offer plenty of technology, starting with the iPad-like 17-inch touch screen in the center console. When I rode in the Model S last fall the seamless integration of the climate control, radio, navigation and phone made for an intuitive, hassle-free driving experience. Details on the car like the auto-open charging lid and the car-shaped key fob with corresponding pressure points show that innovative thinking found its way into every aspect of the vehicle.
Lee calls it “an Apple iPad experience wrapped in four wheels, all electric.” I think it feels like your car can finally keep up with your iPhone.
That is what inspires him most—Lee thinks it’ll start a wave of innovation when competitors get behind the wheel and can dissect it piece by piece.
“I think people need to wake up and see what you can and can’t do,” he says. “People are going to be like, ‘We can’t have 100-mile range cars anymore. Look at what Tesla did. Why can’t we do that?’ There are no excuses anymore.”
Until then, keep your eyes peeled around Palo Alto. You’re bound to see Lee and his new ride.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/hannahelliott/2012/06/...an-aston-martin/
|
1 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
|
8 |
9
Thread abonnieren
