Tesla Model S (2020) Review

Last updated on July 24th, 2020 at 11:32 am

Intro, Price, Options and Verdict

Introduction

The Tesla Model S was the car that made EVs desirable for luxury buyers when it was launched back in 2012. It was a phenomenal vehicle back then, and it has continued to push the boundaries ever since, with more and more engine power and more and more range. Although the 2020 model looks quite similar to the original one, the battery capacity has mushroomed from 40kWh to 100kWh, with significantly improved range, and the engine power more than doubled for the top version. The autonomous driving abilities have been regularly upgraded too. The Model S remains a flagship vehicle for Tesla, with abilities in its latest guise that can compete with the best EV Porsche can offer in the shape of the Taycan. Is it still the luxury EV to beat?

Price and Options

There have been a number of different variations of the Model S in the past, but now you can only get what used to be called the 100D or P100D in the UK, and are now known as the Long Range and Performance, both of which have 100kWh batteries. But there’s a bit of difference in engine power. The 2020 model has the Raven powertrain (named after the X-Men character), which can deliver 794hp and 1,013lb-ft of torque, quite ridiculous figures for what is essentially a large executive saloon. The battery’s abilities cut this down to 750hp for the Performance variant. For the Long Range, the Raven is detuned to a “mere” 417hp and 487lb-ft of torque. The new models have adaptive air suspension as standard, which provides more options for driving dynamics.

The Model S is not a cheap car. The Long Range starts at £77,980, with the Performance we tested costing a whopping £92,980. This is a lot of money for a car, obviously, but an obvious comparison is the Porsche Panamera, and that starts at £83,788, rising to £149,607 for the top model with all the trimmings. The Model S Performance is faster than all Panamera versions, and even the Long Range will give a Panamera Turbo S a run for its money. The Porsche might have more enjoyable driving dynamics and a better interior, but the Model S isn’t bad value in its class. If you load all the options available, the top price is £107,130.

The basic Model S is white, but if you want blue, black or grey, it’s £1,450 more, and red is £2,500 extra. The wheels are 19in as standard, but if you want the Sonic Carbon Slipstream versions, these are another £1,450 more, and 21in rims add a whopping £4,400. The interior is all black carbon fibre with dark wood inlay as standard, but black and white is another £1,450, with cream and oak wood the same price. All Teslas come with a basic level of Autopilot, but for an extra £5,800 you can add Full Self-Driving Capability. This is Level 2 at the moment but includes automatic driving from highway on-ramp to off-ramp, automatic lane changes while driving on the motorway, parallel and perpendicular autoparking, and the much-vaunted Summon. Musk has claimed that full Level 5 will be available via a future software update, including the ability to recognise and respond to traffic lights and stop signs, drive automatically on city streets, and an Enhanced Summon, where your parked car will come find you in a car park. The basic Autopilot is essentially an enhanced ADAS-empowered cruise control.

Design, Comfort and Storage

Exterior Design

Tesla exterior design isn’t to everyone’s taste, as it’s clinical and efficient rather than inspired and beautiful in the Italian vein. It doesn’t have the gorgeousness of a Maserati Quattroporte, but on the other hand it’s unmistakably a Tesla Model S, which makes a certain statement in itself. The Model S in 2020 doesn’t look that different from eight years ago, even if a lot has changed inside, so it’s iconic if not gobsmacking. The exterior is sleek and aerodynamic, with flush door handles that pop out when you attempt to enter and go back in again once you’re inside and on your way.

The panoramic roof isn’t obvious from the outside, due to the heavy tinting. Tesla’s range of colours isn’t that extensive. The midnight silver metallic paint on the car we tested is rather sober, but the blue and red options are much more eye-catching. These do offset the clinical look, whereas the basic white is extremely generic.

The basic silver wheels provide a reasonable appearance, but the “Sonic Carbon Slipstream” upgrade is more purposeful. The much more expensive “Sonic Carbon Twin Turbine” 21in option is not a recommended choice for the UK’s terribly potholed roads. Our test car had these rims, and they were great for handling but did tend to telegraph ever little bump, particularly in sport suspension mode.

Interior Comfort

Of the three interior options, we actually prefer the basic Figured Ash Wood, which is black apart from some dark wood inlays. The Black and White with Dark Ash Wood includes fresh-looking white seats, but the wood is a bit too funky for our tastes. The Cream with Oak Wood option, which our test car came with, is our least favourite of all. The wood inlays have the appearance of Swedish self-build furniture. On a more positive note, the faux leather seats are very comfortable. There’s plenty of room in the back for three adults.

All interiors include the Premium Upgrades Package. These provide heated seats for the driver and every passenger, a heated steering wheel, and a HEPA air filtration system. The tinted panoramic sunroof includes UV and IR protection. There’s wireless phone charging in the centre console too, as well as a convenient USB port and two cupholders.

Storage and Load Carrying

Although the Model S is an executive saloon, it’s also a hatchback and a big car. There’s the usual little Tesla cubby under the front bonnet with room for 59.5 litres – enough for a few shopping bags. But the boot has 744.7 litres, and 1,645.2 litres with the rear seats down, making a total of 1,704.7 litres including the front. Putting this in perspective, the capacious Mercedes E-class estate has a 640-litre boot, rising to 1,820 litres with the rear seats down. The Model S may not be an estate car, but if you do need to carry lots of luggage, you can, although since the boot is enclosed, you wouldn’t want to put your whippets in there.

In-Car Entertainment and Controls

We’re not huge fans of having just a central LCD, as with the Model 3 and Y. But the S also has conventional set of readouts behind the steering wheel – albeit still from an LCD rather than true analogue dials. By default, the information provided includes a numerical speed, speed limit indication, and sensor view of your car alongside any cars around it. There’s a dial on the right of this showing drivetrain temperature, and current kW usage which acts like a rev counter, as well as showing regenerative braking in action. The graph in the middle illustrates your Wh/mile energy consumption. The left-hand side illustrates auxiliary features such as what music you’re listening to.

All the car’s settings are accessed via the huge 17in portrait LCD panel in the centre. You can lock the doors and fold the mirrors from the Quick Controls section. The Suspension menu lets you adjust the ride height and adaptive damping. There’s control over how the lights work. Under Driving you can change the acceleration from Chill up to Ludicrous+, as well as separately adjust the steering, regenerative braking and stopping mode.

Autopilot lets you configure functions like speed limit warnings, forward collision warnings, and lane departure avoidance. The Vehicle section includes child-protection lock settings and how the mirrors behave, while Display configures the LCD interface itself. You can view the stats from up to two extra trips on top of the current one and the overall odometer. There’s control over how the navigation functions, as well as the security features of the car including the built-in dashcam.

When navigating, the map can fill the entire 17in screen, which makes for a huge view of the route. Alternatively, you can add music controls, including TuneIn, “Caraoke” and Spotify. You can also download apps to the system, including games. Fancy a quick side of backgammon while driving? Obviously this isn't really possible, but you can at least play it when stationary. You can even browse the Web using the built-in Internet access. There’s a huge wealth of customisation available via the 17in LCD, and while you might hanker for individual controls for some functions, the interface is extremely logical, and anyone used to smartphones or tablets will get used to it. Most functions are much easier to find than on a Mercedes or BMW.

The premium upgrade bundle includes a premium audio package, although Tesla doesn’t go into huge detail about this other than that it’s tuned for the Model S’s quiet interior. There’s also one year of premium connectivity included, which provides satellite maps with live traffic, in-car Internet-streaming music and media, video streaming, the aforementioned Internet browser and even karaoke (amusingly named caraoke – geddit?)

Performance, Running Costs, Range, and Safety

Performance

Since its inception, the Model S has been famous for just how quick it is. The very first P85+ in 2012 took a mere 4.2 seconds to hit 60mph, and this has dipped below 3 seconds since 2015. The Performance model we drove takes an unfeasible 2.3 seconds to reach 60mph – the same as a Bugatti Chiron – and the Long Range’s 3.7 seconds will still humiliate the majority of high-end sportscars in a straight line. With the Performance, you now get four engine modes – Chill, Standard, Ludicrous, and Ludicrous+, with the latter the one you need for that literally ludicrous acceleration ability. In Chill mode, the car takes more than 7 seconds to hit 60mph. The Long Range doesn’t have the Ludicrous options. Its 3.7 seconds is what you get from Standard mode. The battery needs to be warmed for Ludicrous+, and when you select this you get a message telling you how long you need to wait before it becomes fully available. For drag racing your executive saloon, there’s a launch control mode available too.

The air suspension allows three different ride height modes, and you can also configure this to adjust automatically depending on driving speed. There’s also active suspension damping which has Auto, Comfort and Sport options. Comfort mode is a bit wallowy – this is a 2.3-ton car, after all. But Sport makes the Model S really quite responsive and tactile. Considering the size and weight, this is an enjoyable car to drive fast on curvy roads. We’d still rather have the (admittedly slower) Model 3 Performance for its M3-like driving experience, but if a big exec saloon is what you need, you won’t feel like you’ve had to compromise on driving fun. We’d liken it to a modern electric Audi S8. If they remade The Transporter (again…) then Jason Statham should be driving a Tesla Model S Performance.

Range

The other area where the Model S has pushed the boundaries of EVs, other than performance, is range. Tesla was claiming 250-300 miles as far back as 2012, and recently announced the most recent Model S version could go over 400 miles. We haven’t got that yet in Britain, and Tesla UK wasn’t able to tell us when it would be arriving. So for the time being the WLTP-rated range is 367 miles for the Performance and 379 miles for the Long Range. This puts it in the same ballpark as a similar fast executive petrol saloon like the Panamera, and with Tesla’s Supercharger network this is a car you can rely on for long journeys.

Empty to full on a home wall plug will take a considerable 44 hours, but if you have a 7kW installation that will drop to a more manageable 15 hours, and with the range available on the Model S you probably won’t be charging for near empty that often. A 22kW charger will take 6 hours. To charge from 20% to 80% requires 80 minutes at 50kW DC and 30 minutes on 150kW, which will include V2 Tesla Superchargers. If you can find a 250kW V3 Supercharger or Ionity charging station, you can enjoy 200kW charging, so 80% charge will take even less time.

Running Costs

Since both versions of the Model S have 100kW batteries, you’re getting 3.67 miles per kW from the Performance and 3.79 miles per kW from the Long Range. At a price of 14p per kWh, this equates to 3.81p a mile for the Performance and 3.69p a mile for the Long Range. Unfortunately, since 15^th January 2017 the “free charging for life” for Model S owners deal ended. Then you got 400kWh of free Supercharger credits per year of ownership, but that deal has ended too. There are some existing inventory and used Model S cars available that have free Supercharging, but custom builds don't get either deal now. Your only option is the 1,000 miles referral deal. Beyond this it’s 24p per kWh, which isn’t extortionate when you consider this includes charging up 200kW.

The Model S is expensive to insure, with both versions in group 50, like the Long Range and Performance Model 3s. However, while the S also comes with the same 4-year, 50,000-mile warranty, the battery warranty is better, running for 8 years or 150,000 miles, whichever comes first, with a minimum 70% capacity retention. So you can truly make sue of the excellent range capability. Of course, the Model S enjoys tax benefits from zero benefit-in-kind (BiK) as a company car like any EV. Even specifying everything possible, you’d still only pay £1,285.56 in tax over three years of usage as a company car for a 40% taxpayer.

Safety

The Model S is 5-star NCAP rated and has very high percentages for adult and child occupant protection, thanks to a plethora of side and front airbags. Tests in the US have shown the structure to be very tough, with the roof able to carry four times its own weight without crumpling. The basic autopilot includes lane departure warning and can tell you when you’re breaking the local speed limit. It can also steer, accelerate and brake to protect you and the pedestrians or vehicles around you. With the Full Autonomous option, it will change lanes for you, with future abilities still to be released.

Key Specifications

*based on electricity costs of 14p per kWh