The special drive arranged for FMT was to demonstrate the user experience in a Tesla for those who had taken up the limited offer last weekend in the Klang Valley, by ride-sharing service Grab and GreenTech Malaysia.
The Tesla Model S, produced by Tesla Motors, is an electric vehicle (EV) which was introduced in June 2012 and scored a perfect 5.0 automobile safety rating by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the United States.
Zuhril told FMT that that the car was one of a kind in that it gets better over time.
He explained that much like a mobile phone, the car’s software could be updated over time.
“All the hardware is there, the software is updated over time and it is updated while you’re sleeping, so that when you wake up the next morning, your car will have a feature that wasn’t there the day before,” he said.
When asked about his experience driving the Tesla Model S85, Zuhril said that it has spoiled his taste for cars.
“I own a Honda Insight and a Toyota Prius and have driven other cars before, but after driving the Tesla, I don’t want to drive any other cars.”
Zuhril said that there was another feature to the car that made the car safer than other cars on the road.
The hood where the engine would normally be has been replaced with an extra trunk called the “frunk” (front trunk).
“Since the car is completely reliant on energy, there isn’t a bulky engine in the front which makes it a lot safer because if you were to have a front collision, for example, there is no risk of the engine being pushed towards you.”
The car, being an alternative energy vehicle, was also very quiet once inside.
“One of the major benefits of driving an energy vehicle is that there isn’t much noise because there isn’t an engine and the electric motor isn’t noisy. This makes it very comfortable to drive,” Zuhril said of the Tesla, which is equally quiet to anyone standing outside the car, even when it is on the move.
He also revealed that the car was able to understand the intent of the driver and whether or not the driver was getting ready to park the vehicle.
“If you start slowing down and the car detects that there are a lot of cars in the area then it will know that you are looking for parking.
“If a parking spot is available a ‘P’ symbol will show on the radar display indicating the car is ready to perform its automatic parking.”
He said the automatic parking feature on the Tesla Model S85 was completely automatic, which was unlike other cars with automatic parking features that still required a certain amount of driver intervention.
When asked about how long the battery lasted, Zuhril said that a full charge could take the car as far as Penang or Kedah and that there were stations where the car could be charged from there.
The demand for the Grab-Tesla service, which was set at only RM15 per ride, from last Friday to Sunday (between 10am and 6pm), was so great that there was almost no rest for the drivers involved. It was also a testament to the car’s power durability across the non-stop 8-hour service on the road.
Regina told FMT that without the support of GreenTech Malaysia, Grab would not have been able to use the car. She added that all the drivers serving Grab customers over the last weekend were Greentech staff, with the bonus of one car being driven by local celebrity DJ JJ Fernandez.
It has been previously reported that Tesla cars are currently not available for purchase in Malaysia, but are instead only available through a leasing scheme, from Greentech.
Before exiting the vehicle, Zuhril made a last nerve-wrecking manouver showing that the car could accelarate as fast as 0 to 60km/h in under three seconds.