Did you know that Laois has the very first Tesla Supercharger units in Ireland? I didn’t either but it’s true because Ballacolla services have just opened eight chargers specifically designed to service Tesla cars.
It’s good news because Tesla owners don’t tend to be short of a few Euro and they need a place to charge up their cars. Fortunately the Tesla mapping system will always show them the Tesla Superchargers and that means a lot of money heading to Laois.
We are getting ahead of ourselves here.
Tesla has started selling cars in Ireland and that means that there’s a new way to buy and own cars in our little island. Unlike a regular car company that’s made up of people who like cars and driving, technology people who couldn’t tell the difference between a big end and a toaster largely run Tesla.
Six years ago Tesla cars didn’t really exist and now they are on a worldwide expansion of the brand. This has made some rather tense standoffs between “real” car makers and the Government of the USA because Tesla don’t sell cars in the traditional way by popping up a big glass and metal dealership in your home town and getting a local to run it, no, Tesla build and own their own dealerships and everyone in them work directly for Tesla.
Carmakers in the US tried to stop this “direct selling” but failed and now many people have bought into the brand because they don’t have to deal with the hassle of dealerships in the US.
This isn’t to say that Tesla are getting it right but I’m saying that there’s another way to buy a car and almost all of it happens on-line. You browse through the tesla.com website and configure the vehicle any way you like before leaving a €2,000 deposit so that your car can be built.
You can apply PCP finance if you want or pay cash, trade-in combination. Once you’ve paid up the car will be delivered to the dealership in Sandyford where you can collect it after getting some lessons and a cup if coffee, it’s all very civilised.
Currently there are two models on offer, there’s the sporty looking S and the crossover X. Both have the same drive train underneath but look hugely different on the outside.
The Model X is a seven-seat space ship that’s meant to be a family luger; it’s even tow-rated so it can pull a caravan.
If you have any idea that it’s slow or lazy dump it out right now because with “ludicrous mode” engaged this huge car will go from a standstill you 100kph in a bowel-emptying 2.8 seconds.
I tried it at the toll bridge near Portlaoise and I promise you I stopped screaming when I reached the service station. It’s addictive though, there’s something about moving that fast that feels like the Millennium Falcon going light speed.
The Model S is the sporty looking four-door saloon and is the better fun to drive than the X. It holds the road well and it can also be specced with two extra seats in the boot space. There’s no shortage of space for stuff in the cars as there’s both a front and rear boot.
I’ve driven many electric cars but there’s nothing like the experience Tesla have offered with both models, the prices start around €88 grand for the S and there’s hope that a Model 3 will arrive soon and that should have a price of around €40k which should make the luxury brands here look more nervous than they already are.
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