I love my combustion cars too but the Tesla puts them all to shame. It's just better in every way but two: Initial price and range. Economies of scale and competition will fix the first and recharging stations have already mostly fixed the second. I encourage skeptics to drive one. It's an astonishing vehicle.
Puts them to shame how? The Tesla standard of luxury is light years behind that of cars like the S Class. The standard of performance is strictly limited going from 0 to 60, and not sustaining it.
I've driven it, and I've driven other high end cars of it offers very little that you can't find in other high end cars.
The novelty of instant acceleration is fine, but the insulation from wind noise and road noise are still not on par with high end brands even though there's no ICE (and it's not because there's no ICE noise to cover up, in a modern S Class the cabin is almost whisper quiet), and if performance is you goal.
You don't (knowledgeably) get a Tesla because you want the best car, you get one because you want a Tesla. To me cars like the S Class shame the Model S for trying to call itself a "luxury car", and cars like C63 AMGs shame it for calling itself a "performance sedan"
You're probably right about the luxury aspect; I'm not that into luxury. The things that excite me are performance and utility. The P100D is extremely quick [0] and that matters not just on the drag strip but when passing on the highway. The lack of a transmission means the acceleration curve is absolutely monotonic without gaps for gear changes. Regen braking means the car slows down quickly when you back off the throttle. I've never driven a car that had such a direct connection between your foot's position and the car's velocity.
The Model S also has two trunks and can carry six passengers (okay two have to be kids). This thing is as practical as a minivan and has the performance of a 911 turbo. I find that pretty amazing.
That's kind of my point, it doesn't really matter in everyday driving, and if you're interested in some "spirited driving", you want a car with more wholistic performance.
Instantaneous acceleration is nice for stop and go traffic and city driving, but that's inherent to all EVs (A base model Volt as fast from 0 to 30 as a Model S 85)
