California dreaming? No, this is the real electric McCoy

California dreaming? No, this is the real electric McCoy

A 500-mile drive up America’s west coast in Tesla’s Model S plug-in saloon reveals that this could be the car to change everything, writes Nick Rufford

Nick Rufford Published: 19 January 2014

Tesla

IT'S A sunny Californian morning and I am speeding north along the Pacific Coast Highway, dodging the salty spray as it kicks up over the road. The local radio station is playing Bruce Springsteen’s Johnny 99, a song about a closed-down car plant in Mahwah, New Jersey, and from behind the wheel of the Tesla Model S it suddenly seems appropriate.

This electric vehicle was assembled in Fremont, California, in one of the world’s biggest car factories. When General Motors, the plant’s co-owner, went bust in 2009, it shut down and was brought back to life only when Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, picked it up for a mere $42m (£26m). He claims that old-style car makers are finished, and his battery-powered vehicle is the future.

The vision he’s promising is one of electric cars that are as fast as — or faster than — conventional ones, pollution-free (if you use