Tesla Model S P90D 2016 review

Richard Berry road test and review the Tesla Model S P90D with specs, power consumption and verdict.

So, you have an electric car company and a vision of a future where people travel everywhere in cars that do not emit toxic fumes. Are you building cute little egg-like buggies that roll silently looking lame, or are you building sexy cars so brutally fast that they'll make Porsches and Ferraris struggle to keep up? Tesla CEO Elon Musk opted for the second option when he launched his first Model S car in 2012 and won fans on Apple's iconic scale.

Tesla has since announced the Model 3 hatchback, the Model X SUV, and most recently the Model Y crossover. Together they are the S3XY. We're back with the Model S, which has been updated with new software, hardware, and looks. This is the P90D, the current king of the Tesla lineup and the fastest four-door sedan on the planet.

P stands for performance, D stands for dual motor, and 90 stands for 90 kWh battery. The P90D sits above the 90D, 75D and 60D in the Model S line.

So what to live with? What if it breaks? And how many ribs did we break while testing the 0-100 time in 3 seconds?

Design

It's been said before, but it's true - the Model S looks like an Aston Martin Rapide S. It's beautiful, but the shape has been around since 2012 and is starting to age. Tesla is trying to hold back the years with cosmetic surgery, and the updated Model S erases the old gaping fish maw from its face, replacing it with a tiny grille. The empty flat space left behind looks bare, but we liked it.

The interior of the Model S feels half minimalist work of art, half science lab.

The updated car also replaced the halogen headlights with LEDs.

How big is your garage? With a length of 4979 mm and a distance from the side mirror to the side mirror of 2187 mm, Model S is not small. The Rapide S is 40mm longer, but 47mm narrower. Their wheelbases are also close, with 2960mm between the front and rear axles of the Model S, 29mm less than the Rapide.

The interior of the Model S feels like a half-minimalist work of art, half-science lab, where almost all controls have been moved to a giant screen on the dashboard that also displays power consumption graphs.

Our test car had optional carbon fiber dashboard trim and sport seats. The sculpted armrests in the doors, even the door handles themselves, feel almost alien in how different they look, feel and function from those used in other cars.

The quality of the cabin feels outstanding, and even in the utter silence of the power-assisted driving, nothing rattles or creaks—except the steering rack, which could be heard in parking lots as we pulled out of tight spaces. 

practicality

Open that fastback and you'll find a 774-litre trunk - nothing beats that size in this class, plus since there's no engine under the hood, there's also 120 liters of boot space up front. By comparison, the Holden Commodore Sportwagon, known for its cargo space, has an 895-litre cargo area – just a liter more than the Tesla's overall capacity.

The cabin is spacious, at 191 cm tall, I can sit behind my driver's seat without touching the back of the seat with my knees - there is just a gap the width of a business card, but still a gap.

The car's batteries are stored under the floor, and while this raises the floor higher than in a conventional car, it's noticeable but not inconvenient.

The child seat anchor points are easy to reach - we easily insert the child seat from the rear.

What you won't find at the back are cup holders - there's no fold-down center armrest where they'd normally be, and there's no bottle holders in either of the doors. There are two cup holders at the front, and there are two adjustable bottle holders in the large storage compartment on the center console.

Then there is a mysterious hole in the center console pantry that kept devouring our belongings, including one wallet, a gate clicker, and the key to the car itself.

Speaking of the key, it's about the size of my thumb, shaped like a Model S, and comes in a small key pouch, which means it has to be taken out and put in all the time, which was annoying, plus I lost my key after one. night at the pub, not that I'm going home anyway.

Price and features

Tesla Model S P90D costs $171,700. It's nothing compared to the $378,500 Rapide S or the $299,000 BMW i8 or the $285,300 Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid.

Standard features include a 17.3-inch screen, sat-nav, a rear-view camera, and front and rear parking sensors that actually show you the exact distance in centimeters to whatever you're approaching.

The list of options is staggering. Our test car had (take a deep breath now): $2300 red multi-layer paint; $21 6800-inch Gray Turbine wheels; $2300 solar roof, $1500 carbon fiber trunk lip; $3800 Black Next Generation seats; $1500 carbon fiber interior trim; air suspension for $3800; $3800 Autopilot autonomous driving system; Ultra High Fidelity Sound System for $3800; Sub-Zero Weather Pack for $1500; and a Premium Upgrades package for $4500.

All 967 Nm of torque come in one stroke when you stand on the accelerator pedal.

But wait, there's also, well, another one - Ludicrous Mode. A setting that reduces the P0.3D 90-0 time by 100 seconds to 3.0 seconds. It costs… $15,000. Yes, three zeros.

All in all, our car had options totaling $53,800, bringing the price up to $225,500, then add $45,038 of luxury car tax and it's $270,538 please - still less than Porsche. Aston or Bimmer.   

Engine and transmission

The P90D has a 375kW motor driving the rear wheels and a 193kW motor driving the front wheels for a total of 397kW. Torque - sledgehammer 967 Nm. If these numbers seem like numbers, take Aston Martin's Rapide S 5.9-litre V12 as a benchmark - this huge and complex engine develops 410kW and 620Nm and can propel the Aston from 0 to 100km/h in 4.4 seconds.

This incredible acceleration has to be felt to be believed.

The P90D does it in 3.0 seconds, and all this without a transmission - the motors spin, and with them the wheels, because they spin faster, the wheels spin. This means that all those 967 Nm of torque are achieved with a single press of the accelerator pedal.

Fuel consumption

The biggest problem that electric vehicles and their owners face is the range of the car. Of course, there's always the possibility that your internal combustion engine car will run out of fuel, but chances are you'll be close to a gas station and charging stations are still rare in Australia.

Tesla is changing that by installing quick-charge superchargers on the east coast of Australia, and at the time of writing there are eight stations located about 200 km from Port Macquarie to Melbourne.

The battery range of the P90D is approximately 732 km at a speed of 70 km/h. Travel faster and the estimated range decreases. Throw in the optional 21-inch wheels and it drops too – down to about 674km.

Over 491 kilometers, our P90D used 147.1 kWh of electricity - an average of 299 Wh / km. It's like reading an electric bill, but the great thing is that Tesla Supercharger stations are free and can charge a 270 km battery in just 20 minutes. A full charge from empty takes about 70 minutes.

Tesla can also install a wall charger in your home or office for about $1000, which will charge the battery in about three hours.

I never got tired of stopping next to unsuspecting performance cars at traffic lights, knowing they didn't stand a chance.

As a last resort, you can always plug it into a regular 240V socket with the charging cable that comes with the car, and we did this in our office and at home. A 12-hour charge is enough for 120 km - this should be enough if you're just driving to and from work, especially since regenerative braking also recharges the battery. A full charge from empty will take about 40 hours.

A potential downside to the current plan is that most of Australia's electricity comes from coal-fired power plants, so while your Tesla has zero emissions, the electricity-producing plant emits tons of it.

For now, the solution is to buy electricity from green energy suppliers or install solar panels on the roof of your house for your own renewable source.

AGL announced unlimited electric vehicle charging for $1 a day, so that's $365 for a year of refueling at home. 

Driving

This incredible acceleration has to be felt to be believed, it's brutal and I never get tired of stopping next to unsuspecting performance cars at traffic lights knowing they don't stand a chance - and it's unfair, they run on ICE. motors that are powered by tiny lights are mated to gears that will never match Tesla's instantaneous torque.

Hard driving a powerful gas monster, especially with a manual transmission, is a physical experience as you shift gears in sync with the engine RPM. In the P90D, you simply get ready and hit the accelerator. A word of advice - tell the passengers in advance that you are going to start accelerating the warp speed. 

Handling is also excellent for a car weighing more than two tons, the location of the heavy batteries and motors helps a lot - being located under the floor, they lower the center of mass of the car, and this means that you do not get that feeling of heavy tilt. in the corners.

Autopilot is by far the best partially autonomous system.

The air suspension is great - first, it lets you ride dips and bumps smoothly without being springy, and second, you can adjust the car's height from low to high so you don't scratch your nose as you drive. driveway entrances. The car will remember the setting and use GPS to adjust the height again the next time you are there.

The Ludicrous Mode option is really ridiculous for $15,000. But also people spend that kind of money on customizing their gasoline guns. Having said that, the non-ridiculous 3.3 second to 100 km / h mode will still seem ridiculous to most people.

Also, there are better and cheaper options like Autopilot, which is the best semi-autonomous system available today. On the motorway, it will steer, brake, and even change lanes on its own. Turning on autopilot is easy: just wait until the cruise control and steering wheel icons appear next to the speedometer screen, then pull the cruise control switch toward you twice. The car then takes control, but Tesla says the system is still in "beta phase" testing and needs to be supervised by the driver.

It's true, there were times when corners were too tight or certain sections of the road were too confusing and the autopilot would throw up its "hands" and ask for help and you had to be there to jump quickly.

safety

All Model S variants built after September 22, 9 have the highest five-star ANCAP safety rating. The Autopilot option provides self-driving functionality and all associated safety equipment such as AEB, cameras that can recognize cyclists, pedestrians, and sensors that "sense" everything around to help him change lanes safely, brake to avoid a collision, and park. myself.

All P90Ds are equipped with Blind Spot and Lane Departure Warning, as well as six airbags.

The rear seat has a very impressive three ISOFIX anchorages and three top tether anchor points for child seats.

Property

Tesla covers the P90D's powertrain and batteries with an eight-year, unlimited mileage warranty, while the vehicle itself has a four-year or 80,000 km warranty.

Yes, there are no spark plugs and no oil, but the P90D still needs maintenance - you didn't think you could get rid of that, did you? Service is recommended annually or every 20,000 km. There are three prepaid plans: three years with a cap of $1525; Four years capped at $2375; and eight years are capped at $4500.

If you break down, you can't just take the P90D to the mechanic on the corner. You will need to call Tesla and have it delivered to one of the service centers. 

I will never stop loving gas cars, it's in my blood. No, seriously, it's in my blood - I have a V8 tattoo on my arm. But I think that the current era, when internal combustion engine cars rule the Earth, is coming to an end. 

Electric cars are likely to be the next automotive rulers of the planet, but being such conceited creatures, we'll only take them if they're cool and good looking, like the P90D with its Aston Martin lines and supercar acceleration. 

Sure, it doesn't have a growling soundtrack, but unlike a supercar, it's also practical with four doors, plenty of legroom and a huge trunk.

Has the P90D changed your attitude towards electric vehicles? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

Click here for more pricing and specs for the 2016 Tesla Model S P90d.