As I drive through my village, I cross the 50km range mark and the Model S kindly warns me to recharge ASAP due to the incidence of cold on battery charge. As soon as I pull into my garage, I hook up the Model S to the 230V single phase plug, limited to 13A. At this rate (13km per hour), the display shows a charging time fo more than 24 hours. A good night sleep and eleven hours later, I have recovered 149km by drawing 33.2 kWh from the grid, or a net power consumption, charging efficiency included, of 223 Wh/km.

As with all electrics, the energy cost is very low: less than 4.5 CHF/100km, or the economic equivalent of 2.5 L of gasoline per 100km. The approach is unbeatable from this standpoint. Unbeatable also from a maintenance viewpoint: no more oil changes, filters, timing belts and other legacies from the century old internal combustion engine. Maintenance costs are limited to tires and brakes. The former might be chewed up by the amount of torque on tap, but the latter should be preserved by electric regeneration. In Switzerland, yearly maintenance is free for the first 8 years or 160’000km. Batteries are covered by an 8 year / 200’000km warranty. The cost of their replacement is probably extremely high and might impact severely residuals as these cars age.

The Tesla Model S does not fit anybody’s budget, but for a base price of 93’000 CHF for the 85 kWh version (revised to 81’700 CHF early 2014 after a sharp, exchange rate related price drop), Tesla offers an innovative and desirable product for an attractive price. The options list is however long, and most are necessary to deliver a coherent experience. Even then, the 117’000 CHF sticker price of our heavily optioned test model makes the Model S a very attractive proposition for the early adopter.

Bringing the Model S back to its home base in Winterthur, a sluggish morning commute gives me ample time to synthetize the 24 hours spent with this car. The Tesla Model S is everything that the Fisker Karma should have been, minus the range extender. It holds the promise of the electric driving experience, of a different and attractive car, a window on the automobile of the 21^st century. The product is not perfect however. The car is quiet but not the flying carpet one would hope for, neither in terms of suspension or noise, and the interior room is an incomprehensible flaw. If the targeted usage pattern allows to work around charging contingencies, the value proposition is tempting, but if the expectation is that of an all-around grand touring sedan, Tesla is ready for the world, but the world isn’t ready for Tesla.

There are more than 3500 gas station in Switzerland, more than 12’000 in France, serving the average customer with 500km of driving range in 5 minutes at any time of day or night. The network of charging stations is nearly non-existent, and AC charging offers 100km of mellow driving per hour of charge in the absolute best case. Tesla’s answer is called Superchargers, with the promise of 320 km of typical range in 30 minutes. As we first published this article, there were 6 superchargers in Europe, all of them in Norway. As of April 1^st 2014, there are another 8, 4 in Germany, 2 in the Netherlands, 1 in Austria and 1 in Switzerland. Further developments are planned to enable long distance travel along main transit axes, but this is a far cry from personal mobility as one expects. Long distance travel will be enabled, but between locations where flying or taking a train make more sense.

In our society, the car is an indispensable tool of “mobi-liberty”. With the Model S, Tesla gives it a fresh taste, but burdens it also with practical constraints which will be acceptable to a few, but unacceptable to most. A fantastic second car for routine, short or well-planned commuting, or a first car for green-tech junkies with an acquired taste for adventure.