If I told you to close your eyes and imagine the most badass, innovative and mind-blowing electric car, I bet that the majority of you will say the word “Tesla”. Everyone is talking about this car. In 2019, Tesla made up 78 percent of all electric cars sold in the US, and in 2020, they have outsold the next three largest EV manufacturers in the world combined. Tesla, tesla, tesla…But, why do people love this car so much? How is this car so awesome? What makes it so different, so radical, so innovative? What makes people think that it will change the auto industry forever? What makes it, so badass? What makes Tesla the most popular electric car? I, a car enthusiast, will try to answer this question, and hope that I am able to. There is going to be some deep scientific talk in this blog post, so please bear with me.
Now, when electric vehicles first came to the scene, because of the global warming and emissions caused by the conventional, internal combustion engine powered, petrol powered cars that we have now, people hated on it. They were boring, they were slow, they were silent, so no rich engine noise, and since they were a new technology, they caught on fire very often, so that makes them dangerous as well. Tesla was founded by Silicon Valley veterans Marc Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard with the objective of changing people’s opinion on electric cars completely. It was founded, to make the most badass and the coolest electric car that people can buy and love. Tesla’s objective was to make a car so fast, so cool and so innovative, that people love it and the planet loves it too (of course, it’s electric).
Tesla wanted to build a car, that wins the hearts of people. When Elon Musk, one of the most eccentric, innovative and badass people on planet Earth, became the CEO in 2008, he started working hard in Tesla, and started using his innovative mindset to create the most innovative, radical and badass car on the block. And in doing so, he completely changed the definition of what a car could be.
Now currently, let us talk about the performance first. This is one of the things that make Teslas badass. Tesla has been showing insane performance figures since the very beginning. Performance figures, that people thought were not possible. No one thought that electric vehicles can perform so awesomely, and believe me, no one saw this coming. The first Tesla car, the Tesla Roadster, reached 60 miles an hour (96 km/h) from a standstill, in a blistering 4 seconds. The first Tesla Model S, a luxury sedan, had an unbelievable and ridiculous 589 horsepower and 920 pound-feet of torque! That was unheard of from an electric car at the time, correction, that was unheard of from any regular sedan at the time! This is because electric motors can generate instant torque which makes it produce instant acceleration, but we must also give credit to Tesla for producing such powerful electric motors. The current Tesla model S does 0 to 60 mph (96 km/h) in less than 2 seconds!!! The current Tesla Model S Plaid (Performance Version) is a sedan that makes an earth-shattering 1100 horsepower and all the torque is delivered instantaneously! The new Tesla Roadster boasts an insane and outlandish, 10,000 newton meters of torque and a top speed of over 250 mph (400 kilometers an hour)!!! This is INSANE, for a company that is younger than me, to achieve in such a short span of time! I am still trying to digest these facts, and no, I haven’t overeaten…uhhhh, actually I have. Damn. I shouldn’t have eaten those Oreos.
Anyway, where was I? So, the performance is insane and mind-boggling. But, that is just the tip of the iceberg. It is just one of the things that makes Teslas cool. So, since Teslas have already ticked the performance box, I will now talk about practicality and technology, the other two aspects that makes Teslas badass.
Teslas are immensely and mind-blowingly practical and technologically advanced. They can do things that no other car has done before. Tesla Model X has falcon doors which fly up and open like the wings of a falcon. They solve the problem of opening doors in tight parking spaces where 2 cars are parked very close to your tesla from both sides and you don’t have enough space to open the door. That would be a problem in a conventional car. But, the Model X has falcon doors, which can detect the closeness of the other two cars and automatically open the doors in a very compact manner so that it does not scrape against the other two cars. Tesla also has an app with which you can do really cool things. There is a “summon” feature with which you can literally call your car and command it to drive itself from your garage to where you are standing. This is insane! If you live in a snowy and cold place, Tesla has a feature, where it literally melts the ice on the car by heating itself up! So, you do not have to heat the car in order to defrost it. There is another feature where there are many games in the car and you can use the steering wheel and the brakes to play them! There is another feature called “Fireplace mode” where the touchscreen in the center displays the video recording of an actual fireplace and the air conditioner generates warm air in order to give you the feel that you are actually sitting near the fireplace! Even the seats fold down completely! There are countless such features because of which the practicality of Teslas is at a whole new level. Also, another reason why teslas are practical is because they are economical. Infact, Teslas have the longest range of any electric vehicle that is currently there in the market. Tesla delivered more power and more torque with more efficiency. This is a challenging thing to do, but Tesla is doing it with ease. But, in case your Tesla runs out of juice, there is a network of many chargers in your locality where you can easily charge your Tesla. Plus, your Tesla also uses GPS to show you all the chargers that are there in close proximity! They are called “superchargers” in this case.
Okay, so the badass in the block is also practical. Now, let us talk about how insanely safe Teslas are.
Safety is one more thing which Teslas have been dominating exactly like how Mercedes has been dominating Formula 1. Now, any common man might think that electric cars are generally more dangerous than normal cars. But Tesla is lightyears ahead of other normal cars when it comes to safety. Now how is that possible?
Now, if we see the facts, the Tesla Model 3, which is one of the smallest and cheapest Teslas in the current lineup, tested the highest safety rating from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS). Now, for a little background, the IIHS is a non-profit organization that is funded by various insurance companies. It conducts various crash tests and determines the levels of safety of the car that is being tested through specific markers. The IIHS, to be precise, has six main categories for safety. They are as follows-three different types of front-end impacts, side impact, whiplash (which tests the seat and the seatbelts), and roof strength. The ratings are as follows- poor, marginal, acceptable and good-with good being the highest! So, in IIHS terms, Tesla Model 3, the smallest tesla now, got a “good” safety rating according to IIHS terms. Now, how are teslas so safe?
See, the thing is that Tesla has used clever engineering to make their cars insanely safe. Something which no other manufacturer has done in such a radical manner! To start with, since Teslas are electric, they have no engine at the front and no fuel tank at the back, like any other conventional petrol-powered car. Because of the lack of engine and fuel tank, the front and rear of the car are completely hollow and empty! This creates a crumple zone, which absorbs impact in the event of a crash, and lesser force hits you in the event of a crash, and there are lesser chances of death or serious injury, and more chances of you reaching home safely and living happily ever after! Anyway, where was I? So, the additional crumple zones are one thing which gives Tesla the safety advantage over conventional cars. Because, conventional cars have an engine and a fuel tank so they do not have empty, hollow crumple zones so they cannot absorb that much impact during the crash. Now, here I am going to compare the Tesla with the conventional ordinary car to give some reference and to show the awesome safety advantage that Teslas have over normal cars and their unconventional, radical approach towards making the car safe. However, this is just one simple thing. Any other electric car could do it. But what else did tesla do right? Quite a lot, if you ask me. The structure of a car, the frame, is basically made out of A-pillars, B-pillars, C-pillars, roof, rail and a floorpan. The A-pillars, to give you some perspective, are the 2 pillars in the front of the car, which hold the windshield in place. Now, the A-pillars in the Tesla Model 3 are extremely thick. So much unlike conventional cars which have rather thin A-pillars. So, the combined frame is super robust, rigid and strong. There are two other additional cross members in the frame on the roof which are there to hold the glass roof and to add additional rigidity and strength. The roof of the Tesla Model 3 is so strong, that it can withstand 4 times its weight on the roof. That is about a mind-blowing 16000 pounds (7257 kg)!!! That is around 7.2 tons of weight that the Model 3 can hold on it’ s roof. Tesla also pointed out that it can withstand the weight of 2 full-grown African elephants. Now, back to the IIHS. One of the important parameters of a car that the IIHS measures, to check it’ s safety, is the roof strength. Roof strength is nothing but self-explanatory-the strength of the roof of the car. Now, the test is conducted by crushing the car using a crusher. The resistance that the car can take from the crusher crushing it (in pounds) is the strength of the car and the curb weight of the car is it’ s weight. So, the strength to weight ratio of the car is its roof strength. The roof strength of the Tesla Model 3 is 5.847. To give some perspective, the roof strength of other competitors are as follows-BMW 3 Series-5.73, Toyota Corolla-5.22. This shows that Tesla is quite ahead of its competitors when it comes to roof strength numbers. Another mind-blowing thing to say here is that the Tesla Model 3, a small sedan, has a roof strength that is almost equivalent to that of a pickup truck! How cool is that? Rhetorical question. Anyway, the Tesla Model 3 consists of batteries and motors as the only powertrain. They take up the major amount of weight of the car. The catch here is, that the batteries and motor are placed on the floor of the car, the lowest position of the car that is possible. Now, you might say that- “Oh! This is expected from an electric car. They won’t keep the batteries on your head, would they? What is so special about that?” Well, to answer the question, since the batteries and the motor occupy the majority of the weight of the car, the car has a ridiculously low center of gravity, which prevents rollovers during the event of a crash. This low center of gravity is common in all the cars in the Tesla lineup. Now, if we take the SUV in Tesla’s lineup, the Model X, which is the size of a Range Rover, also has a very low center of gravity, so it cannot be rolled over easily. There is also a viral video of the Model X, you might have seen it, where the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) desperately tries to roll over the Model X but they fail, and they measured the probability of rollover of the Model X to be an extremely low, 9.3 percent. It is ridiculous and unbelievable. To put that into perspective, the conventional SUV has a notoriously high center of gravity and is prone to rollovers, so they are dangerous. No offence, but because of the low center of gravity, the Tesla Model X makes its competition, the other SUV’ s look like fools. Now, back to the Model 3. The IIHS measured the probability of getting rolled over for the Model 3 to be a ridiculously low, 6 percent. To put that into perspective, if you take the Chevrolet Camaro, which is a sports car that you might expect to have a low center of gravity, it has a probability of rolling over of 11 percent. This is insane! It has a lower position than a sports car! The lower center of gravity also improves handling. Now, the Model 3 has a very low Polar Moment of Inertia (PMI), actually, it has the lowest PMI of any production car that is available today. Now, what is PMI? Polar Moment of Inertia is the measure of how much force it takes to rotate an object around it’ s center of mass. To explain this in layman’s terms I will give an example. When we take a football and a stick, if both of them have the same mass, the football is easy to rotate around its center of mass whereas the stick is more difficult to rotate around its center of mass because the mass of the stick is further away from it’ s center of mass. So, the stick has a high polar moment of inertia whereas the football has a low polar moment of inertia. Now, the Model 3 is the football. Now, how does a low PMI give the Tesla Model 3 more safety? The science people might have understood it already, but for those who are still scratching their heads and did not understand, let me give you an example. In Motorsport and racing, crashes happen. But let us focus on two types of crashes to understand this. One- is where the car hits a wall at high speed and suddenly comes to a stop. This might seem to be safer because it is simple, but it is actually more dangerous because the time of impact is extremely short, almost instantaneous, and the entire impact of the crash will hit the driver, and that is quite a lot of force. Whereas, the other type is where the car loses control and spins and rolls and flies away, and somehow it comes to a stop. This might scare you, but it is actually safer because the time of impact is high, the car is rolling, spinning and tumbling, and quite a lot of energy from the impact is lost in the form of rotational energy because of the car spinning and rolling, so less impact hits the driver, and that too, not instantaneously. So technically, because of the low PMI of the Model 3, in the event of a crash, the tesla will spin out more easily and the second type of motorsport crash that I mentioned will happen, the car will lose the energy of the impact through rotational energy because of the car spinning out over a longer period of time, so the people in the car will experience lesser impact keeping the people in the tesla safer. If you compare that to a normal car, the car will not spin so easily and the impact will hit you harder over a shorter period of time, which is more dangerous. So, the rolling crash is better than the simple crash, something that we learnt from motorsport and Tesla’s low PMI. You really thought this was all? Well, no. Because Tesla has another ace up it’ s sleeve. Almost all the Teslas, including the Model 3, have a glass roof. Now, this might seem like a point of weakness, but no! This is one of it’ s strengths. The roof of the Model 3 is made up of 2 layers of tempered automotive glass which sandwich a layer of polyurethane. This is a really clever way of absorbing impact from a crash that the clever people at Tesla have used. Now, let me give you an example. If you break the screen of your smartphone by mistake, unfortunately, while doing some awesome stuff that you like, playing games, social media, whatever…… you might be sad of course, but you might also observe that even though the impact hits only one point of the glass screen, the entire glass screen has cracks, as if the entire screen has received the impact! This is because glass has a property, because of which when the impact hits one point of the glass screen, the impact is transferred to all the parts of the screen! So, the entire glass screen absorbs the impact. Tesla has used the same principle. Now, if we take any other normal sedan, it’ s roof might be made up of sheet metal. Now, when a truck hits the sedan from the side, the sedan will absorb very little impact, and the impact might be absorbed only at the point of impact. Now, sheet metal is easy to bend and reshape, so it is fairly good at absorbing impact. But, when you compare it to Tesla’ s glass roof, there really is no competition. The glass roof is the official champion at absorbing impact. Tesla has designed the roof in such a way that if a critical impact hits any point of the roof, it is distributed throughout the entire roof itself, which makes it safer for passengers and there is less impact on them. Since the impact is distributed throughout the entire layer of tempered glass, it increases the time of impact and absorbs much more of that energy. The polyurethane layer ensures that none or very little of the glass falls into the cabin during an accident, because it holds the glass together. Now, we have talked about everything that the Model 3 will do during the time of a crash. But, the Tesla has another ace up its sleeve. It can prevent the crashes from happening!
Tesla has many active safety features. It has autopilot, which is leaps and bounds ahead of its competitors. It is not completely driverless, but that is Tesla’ s goal and also, it is quite advanced. And Tesla also has a collection of cameras and advanced sensors. Tesla also has automatic breaking, where the system is so advanced, that it can detect that the two cars in front of it are going to collide, and even before they collide, the Tesla automatically stops the car, and you are safe! There are a host of such active safety features, and in the safety tech game, Tesla is ahead of the pack.
Now, let us come to the other aspects that makes Teslas badass. Technology-Tesla’s technology is so advanced, that other auto companies are struggling to catch up. People even go as far to say that Tesla is a “Car-puter” or the “Computer on Wheels”. Tesla’s integrated central control unit, which is a series of chips and also known as a full self-driving CPU, claims a computer performance of 144 trillion operations per second!! This computer has capabilities that competitors can only dream of. In Japan, Nikkei Business Publications did a study on the Tesla Model 3. They teared it down and claimed that Tesla technology is more than 5 years ahead of the competition! Technology is one of the most important things in a Tesla and is the key reason why Tesla is ahead of the competition. All the amazing features that I discussed about earlier are possible only because of the amazing technology and software that Tesla cars have. People can also say that Teslas are defined by their software and technology. And the tesla also have one feature where the company promises regular software updates and that just like an entire overhaul. It adds new features like Dog Mode which makes it convenient for the user to use the car. It also changes that powertrain and suspension settings for better driving experience and also increases charging speeds, increased cruising speeds and all other things.
Another factor is their business model. Tesla, unlike other gas-powered vehicles, do not have a complicated business model where they have to wait for parts and assemble them at the factory. They believe in in-house manufacturing, where they manufacture everything by themselves, and they do not have to wait for parts. This makes everything convenient! You do not have to go to a dealer or a middleman. Teslas are electric and software defined, which means that they do not have to rely on any other additional hardware which petrol-powered cars rely on. Currently, Tesla is giving the most hassle-free consumer experience for the person who is looking for a Tesla, where they sell the car directly, and you can decide the specifications for your new Tesla by your own without any hassle! No going to the dealership and other problems! Tesla has created this revolutionary business model, which declares the conventional parts assembly line obsolete, and is forcing auto companies to follow suit and make cars in-house. So, if other car manufacturers have to even reach close to Tesla, they will have to compete with their business model.
I have quite a lot to talk about the consumer experience. It is another thing that make Teslas so badass. Teslas are just better to drive than anything else on the EV market. Driving a Tesla feels damn good. The experience is so smooth and hassle-free. The model 3 is a dream to drive. It handles well, drives smooth and is incredibly safe as discussed above, and also the quietness and instant torque of the tesla because it’ s electric, adds to the experience. The design of the interior is extremely simple, a minimalist’ s dream, and also quite comfortable. The aesthetics are sleek and modern and the user interface is sophisticated yet kind of simple. Not only their batteries are the best but they are the only company to offer different battery packages at different price points. It is faster than other EV’s and more fun to drive. It is that variety that separates Teslas from their competition.
Branding and Marketing is another factor that sets Teslas apart. The Teslas have an undeniable cool factor. Their branding and marketing is top-notch and their advertising budget is 0 dollars. The marketing success is because of the eccentric personality of the Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk. Everything that Elon does is marketing for Tesla, like sending a Roadster to Mars. Most of the people in your life know the awesome Elon Musk. But you cannot say the same for CEOs of other car companies. They are not as badass and as popular as Elon Musk. Because of this, Tesla has a loyal fanbase unlike any other car manufacturer. When other companies make EV rivals to compete with Tesla, they serve as free advertising for Tesla. Analysts label any effort made by the competition to beat Tesla as “Tesla killers”. Some companies like Volvo openly challenge Tesla when they release a new EV. The branding and marketing of other companies that sell EVs is just not that innovative. Tesla sells innovation. They sell progress, they sell a vision for the future where technology is used to improve the lives of the people and the planet. I don’t think that you can say the same for other companies that are manufacturing EVs.
So, to sum it up, this is why, according to me, Teslas are so badass. This is how Teslas use radical thinking and innovation in order to create the overall, best EV for the masses. I do hope for a bright future with electric cars, and I hope that Teslas remain a part of it, because they currently, are the badass of the block.
Thank you for reading my blog !!!
