The Electric Show! All about EV and much more!.
Film and edit by William Ranieri
Film and edit by William Ranieri
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00Welcome to another episode and we are here with the fabulous Tesla.
00:22I love this car.
00:24I reference this car in so many of our episodes.
00:27This is my personal car and it's a sad day.
00:30Do you know why?
00:31Why?
00:32Tell us.
00:33It's his last day.
00:34It's getting sold in two hours.
00:35Travesty.
00:36Well, look at it.
00:37Luckily enough, I've managed to keep it for a bit longer to make its final video.
00:41As you can probably hear, we're on a busy road.
00:44This is a car for the trailblazers of EV adopters and one of the earlier ones.
00:50What's this?
00:51Nine years old?
00:52So a bit of history with this car.
00:53The first owner was Hugh Bonneville from Downton Abbey in Paddington.
00:57And it featured on the Grand Tour back in 2015, this exact car.
01:02It's a celebrity in its own right.
01:03It's a celebrity car.
01:05You should get it autographed before you park with it.
01:07I know.
01:08Don't worry.
01:09It was on the auto trader advert who's the first owner of this car was.
01:11But it's a lovely car.
01:12And there's so many great things about it, but there's a few little niggles.
01:16But it's interesting again to see how far Tesla have come from the first ever car to
01:22the Model 3 and the Model Y today.
01:23So should we hop in?
01:24Absolutely.
01:25Class.
01:26In summer, this car is like, you feel like you're in California.
01:35This car is where it belongs.
01:37Yeah.
01:38It is lovely.
01:39But funnily enough, only the early Teslas have the sunroof, openable sunroof.
01:43They stopped doing it in 2016, I think.
01:45So Bill, what do you think?
01:46It took America by storm.
01:48Yeah.
01:49And it came over here.
01:50I mean, I was involved in the first Brighton to London electric vehicle rally.
01:54This was hushed voices saying something amazing is coming.
01:57See why?
01:58So this is a nine-year-old car.
01:59It still looks like something that will come out of the factory today.
02:01Totally.
02:02I mean, look at this screen.
02:03Tesla have revolutionized the car market.
02:05Volvo copied them.
02:07Ford have copied them.
02:08All of the big manufacturers have copied them with this screen.
02:12And it does do bits I don't like.
02:13I always complain about how cars I have to tap multiple buttons to get to the heating.
02:18But out of all of them, Tesla does seem to be the best because I could also use the scroll
02:23wheel on the steering wheel to turn up the heat, turn down the heat.
02:26I can use voice control.
02:28But everything counts if this car is controlled by this screen, even the lights.
02:32So they are set to auto.
02:33And once you get used to it, it works.
02:36Tesla have done it well.
02:37Yeah.
02:38It's familiar.
02:39It just works well.
02:40How has it changed in the last 10 years?
02:41I mean, what's the technology in current Teslas?
02:44How does it vary?
02:45Because to me, I don't know how they could improve it.
02:46How have they done that?
02:48Every month or every week, I get a software update.
02:50This is still updating to the latest technology.
02:53Wow.
02:54The hardware hasn't changed, but they didn't need to because they future-proofed it at
02:57the time.
02:58But this gets all the same features as a brand new Model 3, Model S, Model X that come on
03:03the road today.
03:04Once it's at home, plugged in on charge, it connects to the house's Wi-Fi and it does
03:07an update.
03:08And then I wake up in the morning and the whole car has changed.
03:11Classy car, but it also has fun elements.
03:13This is why I think my generation and people younger than me find Tesla so interesting
03:19because it does stuff like this.
03:20Yeah.
03:21Who cares about how a car drives anymore?
03:23This drives amazing, but it's not about the drive.
03:26It's this.
03:27Oh, that's nice.
03:28Did you bring champagne, darling?
03:30I did.
03:31I've got a hot toddy in the boot.
03:32Brilliant.
03:33So the Tesla has a feature called fireplace mode.
03:38So you tap it.
03:40Once in park, obviously, the heating turns on, the heated seat comes on, and it starts
03:44playing a crackling noise like a real fire.
03:47So whilst you're supercharging the car, instead of scrolling through your phone, you could
03:51be sat in front of a warm fire.
03:54I love they call it romantic mode.
03:57We spoke about in the last episode how the Nissan doesn't have any space under the front.
04:02Well, Tesla thought of that a long time ago.
04:05Double click the front of the car.
04:07Look at the size of that.
04:08The size.
04:09I can actually get in there.
04:10Go on then.
04:11Let's see.
04:12I'm not going to.
04:13For health and safety reasons.
04:14I have genuinely had a friend in it and it does fit.
04:18And if you're wondering, there is an emergency escape button when I couldn't figure out how
04:22to reopen the frunk.
04:23So you can get out if you're trapped in the frunk, as they call it.
04:27But not only that, a lot of people think that's all you have space wise.
04:30Well, if you go around to the back of the car, take a look at the size in here.
04:36Look at that.
04:39That is cavernous.
04:40I have to say, that is a cavernous boot.
04:42On top of all that space, you remove this, and because there's nothing underneath, I've
04:47got loads more storage.
04:48I could fit two small carry-on suitcases in there.
04:51Wow.
04:52That is crazy.
04:53The only thing I would say is the back seats, they're not for me, because I'm a tall driver,
04:57they're not that comfortable.
04:58Obviously, the car's a very low car, so it is hard to get in and out of, but there's
05:03not a lot of space in the back.
05:05No.
05:06But the Model X has got seven seats.
05:07It has.
05:08It has a five-seater interior, a six-seater, and a seven-seater.
05:11Nice.
05:12In the very early Model S, just like this, you could option two seats in the boot for
05:16kids.
05:17They just fold up, and it was a £5,000 option, and you don't have the false floor at the
05:21bottom, and you could put kids in the back up to 13.
05:23So it's a seven-seater.
05:24Seven-seater.
05:25It's a sports saloon seven-seater.
05:26I mean, I don't think I'd want to be in there in the sun, because this is all glass, and
05:31you will just boil in there with no air conditioning in the back.
05:33Of course, yeah.
05:34So I think that might be a reason why they stopped it.
05:36Especially in America.
05:37Especially in America, because it doesn't look like a seven-seater.
05:39It looks like you're putting kids in the boot of your car.
05:43Which we wouldn't advise, obviously.
05:44It's not great, is it?
05:46But the driving experience, is it still, because it's nine years old, is it different to what
05:51you're driving in modern cars, or is it the same?
05:54I don't like driving it around town.
05:56I think it's quite an uncomfortable car to drive around town, obviously because of the
05:59size, but also because it's quite low down.
06:03I'm used to driving a higher car, but on the motorway, oh my God.
06:08Really?
06:09Out of everything I've driven, it's one of the most efficient electric cars, and they
06:12bought it out eight years ago.
06:13I know.
06:14It's got an 85 kilowatt-hour battery pack.
06:16It will easily do, easy, 250 miles to a charge.
06:20Big question, nine years old, how's this faring battery-wise?
06:25You're not going to believe me.
06:26So it's got 75,000 miles on it.
06:29The battery warranty has just expired.
06:31Before it expired, I got Tesla to do a full health check on the battery.
06:35In the time since it's new, it's still on the original battery pack, it's lost 6% of
06:39its capacity.
06:406%!
06:41So that's a what?
06:42It's a 94%.
06:4410 miles range at the absolute max, not even that.
06:49It's amazing how well these batteries have lasted.
06:51So it is very low, and there isn't a lot of ground clearance, but that's what it is.
06:55It's a sporty car, it's a sedan, that's what you've bought.
06:59I think the actual presence of it is the Rolls-Royce of EV.
07:05It's maintained that status.
07:07Nine years ago, this on the road would have been a thing to behold, you'd have people
07:11stopping and photographing it, and actually still to this day, the presence of it, and
07:17how it sits, the curb appeal.
07:19It still turns heads eight years on, because you're so used to seeing Teslas now, you see
07:23a Model 3 and a Model Y, you see them everywhere.
07:27People look at this and think, is that the new Tesla?
07:29And then they look at the number plate and realise, oh, it's the first Tesla.
07:33Do you think that, because this is Maserati, I've said to you before, this has got a kind
07:37of Maserati feel about it.
07:40And the actual, even the badging, the kind of way it sits, it feels Italian.
07:45You wonder if Elon Musk spent a lot of time either in Italy or eating a lot of pasta,
07:49because they've come up with a very Italian-looking car.
07:53I know that our wonderful cameraman and producer and editor is Italian, and he would probably
08:00agree with us that it's reasonably sexy.
08:02It's a sexy car.
08:03It's a very sexy car.
08:05It's almost Pininfarini in its design appeal.
08:08I do feel that they've put a lot into the look and feel, obviously to market it.
08:12Well, that's it as well.
08:13But the design was a massive concern for Tesla, because they wanted to make the most efficient
08:17electric car.
08:18And you can't make it sexy and efficient, but Tesla managed to do it.
08:22And they did it very, very well.
08:24It gets an incredible miles per kilowatt, so you really go far on that 85 kilowatt battery.
08:29And it looks great at the same time, which not a lot of car manufacturers can do.
08:32No.
08:33I mean, this is born of a wind tunnel.
08:36This must have been spent so much time with aerodynamics at mind, because it cuts through
08:41any kind of turbulent air.
08:44That's what I was...
08:45On the motorway, it feels so good when you're blasting through the air.
08:48It just glides through it like a knife through butter.
08:49What's it like to own?
08:50I mean, at the moment, nine years old.
08:53What's the update?
08:54How much is it costing?
08:55So it's costing me absolutely nothing.
08:57This car has never costed us a penny apart from tires.
09:02And the reason for that is it has warranty.
09:04It still has warranty nine years on.
09:08So I go on my Tesla app.
09:09Obviously, I need bits replaced occasionally.
09:12I recently went through a puzzle, and I ended up taking off the back paneling.
09:18And I went on to the Tesla app, requested a service.
09:21Two days later, they came to the house, let themselves into the car using the app on their
09:25phone, and replaced all the bits that needed done, and drove home.
09:28Got to be the future.
09:29And I came out, and I didn't even realize my car was fixed.
09:31They didn't knock the door.
09:33They just got to work.
09:34I mean, how crazy is that?
09:36They're not wasting money on dealerships that they don't need.
09:39Instead, they're putting their money into the vehicle, where it should be.
09:42Into the tech, and how it supports you.
09:44Exactly that.
09:45Got to be the future.
09:46It is indeed.
09:47It's right here.
09:48Nine years old, and still the future.
09:49But I'm going to miss it.
09:52This is last drive home after this video.
09:54So you've done me well, Tesla.
09:56Nice to meet you.
09:57Thank you very much.