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Tesla is the future now

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Mathieu St-Pierre
Tesla is a word and name that is steadily growing in notoriety, and with just reason. This relatively small Palo Alto, CA-based company is taking the world by storm, an electric storm to be precise.

I’m not going to pretend that I’m a business analyst, but damn, by the amount of press the company is getting and the sheer number of Model S cars I see on the road in my northern, remote, isolated town of roughly 3.75 million inhabitant of the greater Montreal area, I think Tesla is on to something.

From the very moment I watched videos of the Roadster destroying Ferraris on a ¼-mile run, I was smitten. When I finally got to take the car for a spin, the norm, the status quo no longer applied to my automotive experience. In other words, this is when I realized that the end of the internal combustion engine (ICE) was a real possibility.

The Model S, and upcoming Model X, further demonstrates that electric is a true viable alternative to the ICE as range, comfort, utility, and safety are easily on par with regular cars.

As for the source of the electricity used to charge the batteries is concerned, and how it is generated depending on where you are in the world, this debate will go on for a while…

Back to Tesla: With the recent demonstration given by Elon Musk on battery swapping as the ideal, most cost- and time-efficient way to go about our daily business, Tesla’s worth continues to soar.

It’s more than just that… The Tesla Model S story is an encouraging one. Take the fact that this pricey luxury car has not only outsold, and by quite a margin, most other EVs so far this year, but it is also taking luxury carmakers and their flagship sedans to the cleaners. Yes, the Model S is also outpacing the likes of the Audi A8 and BMW 7-Series in North America.

This blows my mind. Here’s a car that retails for $80,000 that has outsold the likes of the Ford Fusion and C-Max Energi, Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Toyota Prius PHEV, and others combined! More people selected the Model S over the “revolutionary” Chevy Volt. The same goes for my favourite Nissan LEAF.

Are you as dumbfounded as I am? This demonstrates that Tesla, in a very short period of time, has managed to hoist itself up to a luxury-brand level of appeal. This bodes well for an upcoming affordable Tesla.

The Tesla story continues and I’m convinced it’ll be a good one. And by the way, when was the last time you heard talk about hydrogen-powered cars? Same here. I think the EVs and PHEVs are the way to go.

2012 Tesla Model S front view
Photo: Sébastien D'Amour


Mathieu St-Pierre
Mathieu St-Pierre
Automotive expert
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