Tesla Model S Arrives in Howard County

It has the look of a Jaguar, the speed of a sports car and runs on absolutely no gas. For years, gearheads have watched as Tesla Motors developed a line of luxury electric cars. The company suffered set backs, faced questions, but today it's beginning to look like the future of automobiles.

This month, Consumer Reports declared the Tesla Model S "is our top-scoring car." The vehicle received a 99/100 on the magazine's rating scale.

On Monday, a family in Columba who has patiently waited for their own Tesla Model S, finally got the car of their dreams.

"We were waiting for the right car to come along," said Kristin Grue, of Wilde Lake, while standing next to the freshly delivered car in the driveway with her husband Donald Grue, who will drive the car on a daily basis.

Donald, who works as an operations and maintenance manager, said the first car he ever bought was a Monte Carlo SS. He had been eyeing one of the new Dodge Challengers, to replace his aging Chevy S10 pickup, but decided to put down a $5,000 deposit on a Tesla, even though the car wouldn't be shipped for two years.

"This is a stretch for us," said Kristin, who noted they had been saving up for two years to afford the car.

"We knew that if the car wasn't successful, we'd probably lose our deposit," said Donald, who was also looking at possibly a BMW 5 series or an Audi A6, "But once this car came on my radar, those others fell to the back."

"I'm lucky my wife is a car person too," added Donald.

On Monday, during their first test drive, the sleek blue car turned heads as Kristin sped down Little Patuxent Parkway. The car made no noise as it effortlessly pulled quickly away from other cars at a light on MD 175. It felt like it was turbocharged.

"It is way too easy to go fast in this car," said Kristin.

The large 17-inch touchscreen took up the entire middle console. Andrew, a Tesla employee, gave the Grues a lesson on how to use all the car's features, such as Google maps, its web browser, driver specific settings such as mirror locations and radio stations, and showed off both the rear and front trunks.

The engine for the rear wheel drive car sits directly under the rear wheels, with the battery taking up much of the undercarriage. This gives the car a low center of gravity, but also plenty of cargo and seat space.

Using a special power adapter the all electric vehicle is capable of charging from a completely empty battery to full in eight hours, said Andrew, who was not authorized by Tesla to talk specifics about the car to a reporter.

The Grues bought the base model, which gives their car about 130 miles of travel on a single charge.

Donald said it won't be enough to make the trip to visit his family in Canada, but it will do just fine getting back and forth from his job on a daily basis.

"I've always been someone that likes unique vehicles," said Donald. "People are going to know this is me."

The Model S ranges in price from $62,400 for the base model to well over $100,000 for a fully loaded performance model, according to Tesla's website.

During the first quarter of 2013, Tesla reported selling 4,750 Model S cars.