The Roadster was Tesla’s first car on sale, but that one was sort of cheating because Lotus did all the hard work, building Elises without the engines in and sending them over to America. The Model S came out in 2012 (it wasn’t available in the UK until 2014 mind) and immediately set about upsetting the establishment as it challenged some of the perceived industry norms. Some of them, like interior design and packaging, were entirely due a bit of a challenge, but others, such as build quality and customer service, could have been left as they were. Tesla under Elon Musk’s careful guidance has always been a disrupter, though, even if what it was disrupting was its own customers’ commutes.
What set the Model S apart from previous efforts at electric vehicles was that it didn’t ask for too many compromises from drivers to run the car – performance was the sort of thing you’d show off to your friends, range was impressive, the car was a reasonably fancy five-seat saloon and Tesla immediately set about addressing the issue of charging infrastructure by creating its own network of rapid charging stations that buyers could – gasp – use for free.