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2013 Tesla Model S Long-Term Road Test
Edmunds.com
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2013 Tesla Model S Long-Term Road Test
Our long-term 2013 Tesla Model S is certainly fun to drive, but does that feeling last after nearly a year of ownership?
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To say that it's exceeded her expectations is an understatement. It's her daily commuter car for the 100 mile roundtrip between our home and her job (depends on the day of the week, either Silicon Valley or downtown SF).
She doesn't use the superchargers on a regular basis, as we had a NEMA 14-50 put in our garage, but with the PG&E EVA rates we're paying about $40 a month to charge the Tesla, versus about $400 a month to put gas in the Audi A7 that she used to drive.
We do take the Tesla on longer drives up the coast or to Sacramento and have never had an issue with range. The superchargers work well and are in the right places to give us the added range we need.
Last week, in fact, my wife took the Tesla from SF to LA for a conference. She had airline tickets but wanted to see how well the I5 supercharger network would work. So she canceled the airline tickets and drove. It turns out that while it still took a bit longer to drive versus flying (maybe 1 hour difference), she arrived in LA totally relaxed, no backaches, no headaches from TSA lines and crowded/late planes, etc.
The two supercharger stops each way took about 20 minutes each and she actually liked the opportunity to get out, stretch, use the bathroom and get a coffee.
So yeah, we agree, not only is the Tesla "still impressive", it actually seems to be getting more impressive as the supercharger network expands.
What was the final analysis of that failure anyway?
These are huge failures, on the Tesla and on the Jeep. But it seems Edmunds only follows through on the fluff and ignores the elephant in the room, maybe hoping that the readers will forget about it too?
Sure, we can search the internet for answers, but doesn't that defeat the purpose of this site performing Long Term tests? It really isn't that interesting coming here to read about editor complaints stemming from not RTFM.