The Tesla Model S is one of Time's Best Inventions of the Year

Beating every other invention of 2012: indoor fog machine cloud.

I think because it's the one that feels the least like a compromise. With most electric cars, you need to compromise on things like performance and range. From all of the reviews I've read, the Tesla Model S a great car, that just happens to be electric.

For instance, the Nissan Leaf has a range of 73 miles on a charge, then you have to spend several hours charging it. You can generally do 400 or more miles on a single tank of gas in a reasonably efficient car; and then you can refill in a minute or two and be on your way. The Tesla has a range of 260 miles; much closer to a tank of gas, and a lot less likely to leave you worried that you'll run out of charge.

From the reviews I've read, Tesla is also a great car for people who love cars. It can do 0-60 in 4 seconds. It is well put together, with innovative electronics. It makes electric cars sexy, not just something that makes you feel good for saving gas while being kind of a pain to drive.

On the other hand, it is considerably more expensive than its competition, and still somewhat limited compared to a gas powered car. While you do get greater range, if you're going on a long road trip, you will need to stop for long recharges.

I think part of the excitement is that Elon Musk, and Tesla Motors, are quite committed to pushing for electric cars. They don't make anything else. It's not an electric car from a manufacturer who makes traditional cars, and can fall back on them. They need it to succeed. So they are introducing solar charging stations where you can recharge for free. They are really coming up with an innovative car; I think that of anyone, they do have the best chance to make an electric car that will really take off, but they do have some tough obstacles ahead of them.

As an owner of a Nissan Leaf, I'll take a stab at it. First, Tesla makes nothing but electric cars. Contrast this to Nissan who also makes the gas-guzzling Armada ("like an entire fleet of SUVs coming at you!"). Tesla has an incentive to make them not suck, all the way from the experience of the car itself to the sales process to keeping it charged (the Supercharger infrastructure).

The Leaf buying experience, OTOH, was one of the worst I've ever experienced. I'll spare the details for another time, but if I weren't a hard-core early adopter Nissan would have had an extra Leaf lying around. I love our Leaf, but Nissan did little to endear me to the company itself. From what I hear of Tesla, though, it sounds like their start-to-finish-to-living-with-it experience could turn me into a fanboy.

Second, though I'm really happy with our Leaf it falls a bit short in some respects compared to the Jaguar we got rid of to make room for the Leaf. The Leaf is a really nice compact car, but it's still a gussied up Nissan Versa. The Tesla, OTOH, is a nice car, electric or not. If they hadn't already sold out with a miles-long waiting list, I probably would have put money down on a Model S. I can see one in the car-owning future of my wife and me.

Last, with the range of the top models it could be an only car for a lot of folks. Our Leaf can do a day of driving around town or further, but then it's back home to get plugged in. I can't think of a lot of places I'd go that a Tesla couldn't take me there.

In summary, the Tesla Model S is the car that could take the industry forward. Nissan Leafs with a 100 mile range sold through a traditional dealer network probably aren't.

I get the impression that Tesla is trying to improve more than just the drivetrain and create truly modern vehicles. While I haven't been in (let alone driven) one, I've heard a few tidbits that suggest it, unlike the few other all-electric options, is really trying to be a so-called vehicle of the future.

The bits where it's fast and have the supercharger (and now its associated charging network) are certainly nice perks, but it's stuff like this that show they're rethinking a lot of things from the ground up: "As you approach, the Tesla key commands the door handle to unlock, waiting for a simple tap to present itself. With it in your pocket, Model S turns on as you buckle in to the driver’s seat." (http://www.teslamotors.com/models/features#/styling)

From an industry standpoint, catering to the luxury market (as compared the Volt, for example, which seems relatively pedestrian other than the fact that it's also all-electric), it probably affords them a higher R+D budget to push the tech faster. And by having no gas vehicles for sale, they don't have the problem of making all of their other cars seem less desirable by having an EV option. They're changing up the sales model as well from what I hear, and lord knows the car sales industry could use a kick in a more humane direction.

Would it be top of my list if I had a spare $90,000 lying around? No. But if money were no object in my life, it would certainly be a pretty nice purchase.

Other car companies need to sink a relatively huge sum of money into R&D to get into the electric car field, and are left with a product that will probably for the most part cannibalize their own sales. They seem to think "hey, some hippies want electric cars, and we might lose their business if we can't offer them one. So let's make sure we get that checkmark." The result is often a half-ass attempt to keep up and show progress rather than true innovation.

Tesla is trying to disrupt the market as a new player. To do so, they are trying to redefine the industry every step of the way (made-to-order cars, direct sales, etc). They also need true innovation to generate sales, because they're a dark horse. But unlike electric offerings from other companies, Tesla's end goal isn't to offer the best electric car. That would disrupt a very small industry. Their goal is to offer the best car, period. And so they're coming out with electric cars that hands-down beat same-class cars in some traditional factors like performance, and are comparable in other factors (like range)

See the spider-graph halfway down this page: http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/alternative/1208_2012_te...

Alternatively, maybe you could sum it up by saying that it is because the Model S isn't a good electric car, but rather a good car.

Sorry to put it like a fanboy, but primarily because Elon Musk and his teams have a history of getting hard things done.