So what’s it like to drive the future? Oddly conventional at first. The door opens with a hi-tech hidden touch-pad, but once you drop down into the snug, low cabin the Tesla looks and works like an ordinary sports car. It ‘starts’ with a standard key, but instead of the roar of an engine behind you, there’s just a laptop-style bong to tell you it’s booted up. The dials in front of you give you engine and road speed, and by your knee there’s a touchscreen that tells you how many gallons of petrol you’ve saved, and crucially how far you have left to drive. When you’re ready to go, you just pull the conventional auto-style gearlever back to ‘drive’ and the Tesla takes off with a very Star Trek sigh.
The reaction you get from other people varies. The fact that the Tesla looks like a Lotus means many ignore it, but others do a rapid double- take as they realize that the car passing them is making absolutely no noise. It might take you a few minutes to get used to the idea that it will pull out into traffic on demand without the sound of an engine to reassure you. But soon the lack of noise becomes a huge advantage. Petrolheads have long worried that silent electric cars will be dull to drive, but the reverse is true. At low speeds, the Tesla Roadster is the most refined car on the road. When you’re driving hard, the silence just makes the acceleration seem even more absurd, and constantly feeds your smugness about driving such a clean, clever car.
But frankly, you can forget about the Tesla’s Roadster’s green credentials and its importance to the future of the car; its insane, unique performance alone justifies the price.
