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2013 Automobile Magazine Car of the Year!


An impressive accomplishment. I felt Mr. Musk was working too hard to seduce Motor Trend, but Automobile’s endorsement is over the top.

You can feel the tsunami of positive press “ramping up.” It is always very reassuring when you commit to something (years ago), your friends and wife think you are not only delusional but ‘consumed,’ now vindication is storming in. I can’t wait for mine. Is it Jan-Feb yet?

Congratulations to everyone involved, including us.

Great vid too.

In the "The long, (mostly) slow struggle." breakdown on the second page they mention "//2011 The Fisker Karma wins our 2012 Design of the Year."
Maybe they are not that good at picking after all :-)
The Karma is proving to be a design for fire traps.

They don't explain the distinction between Design of the Year and Car of the Year, but I'm guessing the former is for concept cars and the latter for those actually in production. In my mind, Car of the Year carries a lot more weight.

My eyes are rearing up! :-)

Thanks, rd2. Here is the non-mobile site:

Uh-- My eyes are tearing up! :-)

Congrats again Tesla! Now ship me my S so I can have my own car of the year award. :)

thanks @Tiebreaker. I couldn't figure out why their site was so cr*p! Duh!

Wow. The strongest endorsement yet! In detail.

Check out the Gallery. Some of the best photos I've seen.

Sudre. The Fisker Karma never fails to impress. Who knew after a hurricane-flood your Karma would yield an explosion of light, heat, and be able to cook your hot dogs and burgers. Sounds like a near perfect night to share with your family ... and your insurance agent!

Not that I'm fond of the hybrid concept in general, or Fisker in particular, but to be fair I'm not sure the Model S would do well if immersed in seawater either.

Hopefully it wouldn't burst into flame and melt, but we cannot know this at this point.

Elon and company: congratulations on creating an awesome car but we reservation holders (and soon to be owners) already knew that now everyone else knows it too.

2014 car of the year? Well Model X of course

2015 car of the year? a car with a rocket engine from SpaceX

congradulations tesla this has to put an extra step in your giddy up. you must all be so happy. work hard, have fun and keep giving your best.


Tesla battery pack is by nature waterproof. It has to be because it is liquid-cooled. There are sensors that separate the pack from rest of the car when it detects water in places where it should not have any.

In fact I don't think it would need huge amount of engineering to prevent all high voltage systems to get wet even when fully submerged in water. After all all high voltage cabling have to be insulated anyway, and because PEM and motor are also liquid-cooled there should not be any water-vulnerable parts exposed par connectors. Protect those and you are completely waterproof. What probably doesn't like water is the onboard computer and that 17 screen which I believe are run by low voltage 12V subsystem. It wouldn't take much to turn Model S to submarine.

You'd need some serious ballast tanks to get it back to the surface, though!

Did you notice anything funny about any of the pictures in the gallery? Particularly, "Tesla Model S Front Right Side View 2"?

Funny name for keyfob picture. That is the keyfob, right?


It wouldn't take much to turn Model S to submarine.

Lol, someone's finally identified a way to make the Model S even cooler. Wonder if the submarine option will be the standard $1500 for Model S v2.0?

Quick, call 007! He's got a new car waiting for him!

Propelled by magneto-hydro dynamic jets along either side of the battery. Optional mode of travel: skipping along the surface like a flat stone!

And the battery compartment can be set to flood if captured by the enemy to incinerate any classified material. Fisker should advertise this as a feature!

Timo, you're probably right, but there is one thing you've overlooked. It was 'seawater', not fresh water. Salt is corrosive.


It would take a significant amount of time for corrosion to account for any leaks that wouldn't also have occurred in fresh water. Probably weeks, at least days.

And to think one of the biggest points of whining from naysayers when the ceremony for the first deliveries took place was "Where are the reviews by the automotive press, why is tesla not giving the cars to the press, why are they allowing them only 15 minute drives? Because they know only fanboys like it blahblah...." Not only has there been nothing but praise for this car, but it already got 2 awards for car of the year.

Tesla's press release for this event:

Top of '13, Motor Trend Car of the Year...Bottom of '13', Car and Driver's 10 Best. This car is so overwhelmingly superior, they will all be compelled to acknowledge this truth ....this is not the best electric car. It's the best car.

Don't laugh tiebreaker, if I was a Tesla exec I'd be contacting the 007 producers and offering them free vehicles and some serious sweeteners to get the S in the next Bond film. It would fit in perfectly with their non direct marketing policy and in conjunction with these awards give the car a serious audience and some serious cred.


I didn't think anyone watched any 007 movies after Sean Connery stopped playing James Bond. I watched a couple of later ones and wasn't impressed. I didn't even know they were still being made.

Also many people think Tesla is based in the U.K. (I've had that mentioned to me several times). Being in a 007 movie would just reinforce that misconception.

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