Why the Tesla Model S is more than Vaporware

[ahmed_7erzon]

Tesla doubters should pay the company a visit. The electric carmaker's headquarters sits in a sleepy part of the San Francisco Bay area, just off the scenic Junipero Serra Freeway in south Palo Alto. There's a sense of tranquility in the area - directly across the Interstate 280 are rolling green hills that look serene this time of year, and there's no shortage of open land and trees. Sharing the same street with Tesla are pens where horses go about their equestrian business.
If the Model S came blasting down that street, it probably wouldn't spook the horses. A bit farther up the road, in a workshop reminiscent of your buddy's garage/personal after-hours workspace, Tesla has been laboring on the electric sedans it believes will keep the company viable. The Silicon Valley influence is immediately obvious: Early builds are called Alphas, terminology reminiscent of software coding. They're about 80 percent of what the Model S vehicles are expected to become, with the remaining 20 percent representing the final fit and finish and other details. All Alphas are built in-house, and Tesla wanted us to see the progress.

Just 20 Model S Alphas will be built, and each copy will serve a different purpose. There will be orange-colored ones for crash testing, and they'll be bashed extensively from all angles. Computer crash simulations were performed for more than a year before letting the Alphas loose, and low-speed impact tests have already been completed. According to Tesla, the early results were better than expected.
The other Alphas are painted black or white. One black vehicle will be used to monitor the power electronics and firmware, because bugs are an inevitable part of the coding process. Another will be used exclusively to check how the manufacturing process is coming along. As a sign of good faith, Tesla has already invited former New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (better recognized as NUMMI) employees to watch and follow Model S assembly. (Tesla bought the Fremont, California, NUMMI factory from Toyota and will assemble the Model S there.)