Tesla Motors has broken the mold...again. The Tesla Model S P85D was given a perfect score by the independent not-for-profit Consumer Reports, but only after its score was adjusted down.
Consumer Reports has a testing methodology to asses the quality of an automobile. That testing framework had previously delivered a top score of 99 out of 100...to a previous Tesla Model S in 2013 (the non-Tesla high of 98 was awarded in 2014 to some company of a bygone era).
Then came the Tesla Model S P85. It broke through the framework and got a 103 out of 100. The final score was adjusted down as metrics were moved, so the final score was 100 out of 100.
Add to that the perfect score received in the U.S. Government Crash Test Rating and you know you have built something unique. Special measures had to be used to flip the Model S over at all (normal cars flip on the track at high speeds) and the government crash test roof crushing machine broke before the roof of the Model S did!
Consumer Reports and the US Government have been rating cars for over 60 years. Some of the automotive manufacturers competing for the ratings have been around for over 100 years. Tesla was founded twelve years ago.
In a little more than a decade, Elon Musk and his team at Tesla have changed all the rules, produced the best and safest car ever made and have forever changed the automotive industry (and with the building of the Gigafactory that will mass produce automotive batteries in Nevada...maybe another industry or two).
Innovation and creative destruction are at the heart of American capitalism. Elon Musk made a bet on the electric car. He risked $70 million of his own money (nearly a third of his net worth at the time) believing Tesla could succeed where others had failed. The entrepreneurial spirit that drives companies like Tesla is everything the world admires about America, and rightly so. That is what capitalism delivers: innovation, better products and cheaper prices (well not yet for Model S but the Model 3 will be here in 2017).
Today, Tesla employs 6,000 people mostly in the U.S. When the Gigafactory comes online in a few years it will employ another 6,000 people. When we talk about "job creators" in this country, there is no better example than Tesla. Tesla should be selling cars consumers want, innovating and exporting their products around the world. But there is a roadblock that even this "perfect" car can't drive through.
This embodiment of what makes America great is running into some unfortunate realities of the modern American economic morass. Tesla wants to sell its cars directly to consumers but many states do not allow such a transaction. Why? Why can't a consumer purchase a car directly from a manufacturer?
Entrenched interests. Antiquated regulations. A gridlocked political system.
Many states have outdated laws on their books that cars must be sold through car dealerships. This legislation enacted in the 1950's to protect the car dealership networks that had risen to educate and service the first wave of mass market automobiles. Now Tesla is being forced to challenge these laws and is being fought by the car dealerships and their political patrons. These dealerships do employ a lot of people but the value they bring to the automotive supply chain is eroding. As history has shown repeatedly and without fail, you can not protect jobs in a dying industry. While entrepreneurship is a great strength of America so is our economic flexibility. By not modernizing laws to allow Tesla to sell cars directly. politicians are only delaying the inevitable and impeding a new American champion.
Tesla is only freely allowed to sell cars directly to consumers in six states, four more allow it with restrictions. In many states your government outright bans you from directly buying the best and safest car ever made.
These obstacles are stifling the American Dream. They stifle innovation. They increase prices to consumers. They let foreign competitors catch up to Tesla.
While the Tesla Model S P85 is priced beyond the reach of most, in time and at scale, Tesla will deliver more innovation, lower prices and you too can be driving a near perfect car. Car dealers and uncompromising politicians, please get out of the way. That sound you hear coming is the silent-roar of an electric engine powered by American leadership, innovation and ingenuity.
Congratulations on your perfect score Tesla, you are what makes America great.