Besides running his 1966 Volvo P1800 for more than 3 million miles, Irv Gordon was a lovely guy. Volvo embraced him as an official ambassador and allowed him to drive new Volvo vehicles until his death in November 2018. Hansjörg Eberhard von Gemmingen seems to be as nice as Gordon. Sadly, the differences go beyond him driving a Tesla Model S.

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Since Von Gemmingen bought his Model S P85+ in 2014 with 30,000 kilometers (18,641 miles), he went through a lot while making it be the Tesla with the most mileage worldwide. In January, he reached 1.5 million km (621,371 mi) with his electric sedan. Von Gemmingen only got there after several visits to Tesla Service Centers.

It was not a matter of rebuilding an engine or replacing wear parts, as it was for Gordon. The American Volvo owner even changed some components on his own. We’re not aware if Von Gemmingen also does that. What we do know is that he had to replace drive units and battery packs. Being candid about that – just like Gordon was – apparently made him fall from grace with Tesla. In Von Gemmingen’s case, it seems that he is putting higher numbers on the odometer as an exercise of perseverance – or stubbornness, depending on how you frame it.

In a tweet published on March 25, 2022, Von Gemmingen vented about the ninth motor replacement in his car. While he stated that it seems that Tesla only replaced the electric motor in his Model S with scraps, he was not as specific about how many times he had to go through that. Thankfully, Von Gemmingen gave us the necessary elements to realize that on our own.

The Model S owner was retweeting another post from March 21 in which he complained that Tesla did not invite him to the opening of Giga Grünheide. The translation of that tweet follow below:

“I am also not wanted; how dare I mention that 8X the DU had to be repaired? I could have had a card… No, thanks.”

As you can see, he was disappointed that Elon Musk and Tesla ignored him on something that the company should be proud to invite him for. He also mentioned that he had to replace the DU (drive unit) eight times until that point. That said, the March 25 tweet was announcing the ninth time that would be necessary.

Although there is no excuse for Tesla to treat like this someone who represents the brand like Von Gemmingen does, perhaps he keeps having issues with DUs because they are of low quality. If that is really the case, the Model S owner will continue to replace them, whether new or used. In other words, they would be good for 166,666 km (103,561 mi) and not much more than that.

If the reason for so many issues with these motors is that Tesla simply gives Von Gemmingen badly refurbished motors, that is something pretty stupid to do with someone who drives so much, and that represents your brand – whether you like it or not. Tesla should give this guy the very best that it has in store so that he had good stories to share.

Apart from the nine DU replacements, Von Gemmingen also had three different battery packs in this car that we are aware of. All of them were replaced under warranty, and one of them was used temporarily until Tesla obtained one to be in his car for good.

Some Tesla investors try to argue that we should count only two battery packs because one was “temporarily” used by Von Gemmingen’s Model S. However, that happened for half a year and 150,000 km (93,206 mi). That makes it a pretty permanent situation for us – some cars never reach that kind of mileage in their entire lifespans.

Von Gemmingen is still far from the 3 million miles Gordon managed to clock in his Volvo P1800, but we do not doubt he may get there one day. Unfortunately, it seems that he will do so not thanks to Tesla, but in spite of it. Wish him luck in keeping doing his thing – and being candid about it – even if that means servicing his car on his own or through independent shops that really care about their customers.

On March 28, we told you how Hansjörg Eberhard von Gemmingen is an electric mobility hero. The man had driven his Model S P85+ for more than 1.5 million kilometers (621,371 miles) until January 2022. On March 25, he had to replace the drive unit (DU) in his EV for the ninth time, which showed he got there despite Tesla. Now, Von Gemmingen shared another milestone with his EV: 1 million miles (1,609,344 km).
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As far as we know, this is the first Tesla ever to reach such high mileage. We have counted nine DU replacements, but Von Gemmingen stated on Twitter that his car had only eight, which is weird. Before he announced a new broken DU on March 25, he shared on March 21 that he had already had eight motors in his car. Either what he said on March 25 was a false alarm (and the DU is still working), or we missed something.

Apart from the eight or nine motors, the electric sedan also got three different battery packs so far. Luckily for Von Gemmingen, these replacements were done under warranty. We suspect that having to buy a new battery pack would end the career of this Model S as it did with Tuomas Katainen, who blew up his 2013 Tesla Model S in Finland after receiving a €20,000 bill to replace the battery pack in his used EV.

Von Gemmingen also has a Roadster. The last time we checked, it had 700,000 km (434,959 miles). Despite his love for Tesla vehicles, he seems to be interested in a Lucid Air at the moment. For someone traveling as much as he does, a car with a 520-mile range that can charge at high speeds would indeed be the perfect match.

For Lucid, giving Von Gemmingen an Air would be a genius marketing stunt. With official brand support, the man that reached the more miles with a Tesla would probably be happy to promote electric mobility with a vehicle that travels further and charges faster. If it did not have to replace the battery pack or the drive units as much as the Tesla had to, that would also show Lucid did much better than the legacy EV maker in that regard.

For Von Gemmingen, he would not have to fight to keep his car moving anymore. Since Tesla could not care less about his effort to show how much an electric vehicle can last, Lucid may be interested. Will we see a Lucid Air beating the Model S mileage? That would be an interesting plot twist.

Short of being a fighter jet pilot, an astronaut or a race car driver, it’s unlikely that you’ve experienced acceleration at the same level as the Tesla Model S Plaid. It’s dumbfounding. Mind-altering. Verging on uncomfortable. The speed at which nature passes you by through the windshield and the side windows is akin to pushing high triple digits in an old “Need for Speed” video game, watching the world bend and stretch around you in that game-ish way. It’s difficult to comprehend without being in the car and feeling it. We knew it was going to be ridiculous, but it still managed to catch us — journalists who drive quick cars all the damn time — completely off guard. There’s no denying it. The Model S Plaid is a special car, and its rapidity is guaranteed to shock you.

That acceleration is but one part of this big sedan’s stat sheet. The Model S Plaid has been on sale for a little more than a year, though we haven’t been able to get our hands on it until now. Since Tesla doesn’t provide test cars for review, we got this one through Turo (more on that experience soon). It’s the one and only Plaid available for rent in Michigan, so we snagged it for one day, which allowed us a maximum of 100 miles of driving. Despite the low mileage limit, we spent the entire day tinkering about, getting familiar with and learning everything we could about what it’s like to drive and operate a Model S Plaid. Just like getting a new phone, though, diving into the interior of a Tesla requires an acclimation period.

The new and weird hits right away with the yoke of a steering device. Our quick take? The yoke ain’t it. There’s only one thing it does better than a steering wheel, and that is to provide a superior, wide and flat resting place for your hands on long highway journeys. Beyond that, the yoke is inferior to a traditional steering wheel in every practical way.



If a turn is 90 degrees or sharper, making said corner is just plain awkward. Want to execute a quick turnaround maneuver? Instead of a convenient rim to grab and keep turning, you’ll find open air. And don’t even start to think that you’ll “adapt to it,” or “get used to it.” Given more time to really get the hang of operating the yoke, it would still be annoying and undeniably worse than a wheel when you need to go lock-to-lock. Even when you’re arcing the Model S through wide sweepers at speed and testing the handling, it is disconcerting. It’s never possible to adjust your grip upward or move your hand around the steering wheel from corner to corner, as one might want to do on a meandering road with slow and fast corners of differing radii. If you do shift position, that one hand loses contact entirely. We found ourselves gripping the yoke tighter and with a greater sense of self-preservation — a nagging fear that it’d whisk out of our grip never went away — than we ever have with a steering wheel.

Also worth noting: The yoke’s covering was largely worn off on our 19,000-mile Model S tester. And sure, perhaps that’s due to heavy hand sanitizer/Clorox use throughout this rental’s life in a pandemic, but it was a sad sight to see after just a year of use. We’ve rented other cars in the past year-plus with similar mileage that didn’t look anywhere close to this bad.

As for the digitized Ferrari-like turn indicators on the steering wheel, those worked better than expected. The Model S is smart enough to realize when you’ve put the indicator on in a merging situation versus signaling for a turn at a traffic signal. Without fail, the car would automatically turn off the signal right after completing a lane change, so a duplicate press was never necessary. Operating the windshield wipers in a similar manner — no stalk — wasn’t problematic either, mostly because you can just set the wipers to auto, and they’ll smartly do their thing. The touchscreen shifter worked well enough, but the “auto shifting” feature where the car is just meant to magically know which direction you want to head did not. We resorted to manually swapping between drive and reverse most of the time. And don’t worry, we tried out the silly sound effect “Boom Box” horn, too. Senior Editor James Riswick is right. It’s a public nuisance.



There really isn’t much to speak of throughout the Model S Plaid’s interior outside of the massive screens in front of our faces. Yes, screens. Plural. While the cheaper Model 3 and Y get one screen to rule them all, the Model S retains its digital instrument cluster. A head-up display (HUD) would be a welcome addition, but apparently you can only ask for so much with an approximately $150,000 luxury sedan. In all fairness, companies like Porsche and BMW will force you to pay extra for luxuries like a HUD, but at least they offer it.

The yoke affords an uninterrupted view of the minimalist cluster screen, but due to its width, it actually blocks your view of the bottom right corner of the infotainment system. We’ll call it a zero-sum game for yoke visibility gains and losses, as the blockage of the screen makes it such that you need to peer around the yoke to see the climate control button and the main vehicle settings menu quick toggle. Directly below the main infotainment system are a pair of wireless phone chargers that charged our phones quickly and never overheated them — take note, BMW. Really, offering two wireless phone chargers in luxury cars should be a more common feature. Your passenger might not have a cord with them 24/7.

Since this Model S is the Plaid, it gets the sporty carbon fiber trim all over the dash, doors and center console. It’s subtle, as far as carbon fiber trim goes in luxury performance cars, favoring a matte finish as opposed to the glossy carbon you’ll find all over European luxury cars. The white seats that contrast with the black trim in this Plaid were less white and more stained at this point. Again, that’s after 19,000 miles and about a year of use as a rental car. Unlike that yoke, this may be more typical for cars with white leather interiors. Either way, anybody who is thinking of ticking the box for the white interior should consider this propensity for staining before doing so.



And if you were curious about other build issues, yes, the Plaid lived up (well, down) to Tesla’s reputation with mismatched panel gaps (it was particularly poor where the hatch and fender meet) and misaligned trim. The glossy black window trim was embarrassingly lopsided, and that’s something you’ll see every time you get in and out.

Your seating position is up high for a performance-oriented sport sedan, but it’s at least consistent with other EVs. The battery pack under the floor tends to push everything upward in EVs, which in turn makes visibility over the low hood excellent. We can say the same for the view out the sides, but looking through the narrow rear window is distorted. Finding a comfortable seating position requires using the touchscreen – there were regular seat-mounted controls in the original Model S interior. We can't say this is progress.

How the Plaid drives and responds to the road is largely dependent on how you set it up via the drive mode selections. Accelerating in “Chill” mode makes this tri-motor EV feel more like a Nissan Leaf from a standing start. Pop it into “Plaid” mode, and forget about hanging onto your butts, because you’ve already left them at the last stoplight by the time you realized they’re gone.



The ludicrous (see what we did there?) part about taking off in the Plaid is that going full throttle in “Plaid” mode results in acceleration that is already going to change your perspective about what it means to be quick. Somehow, using the Drag Strip Mode (it requires an approximately 10-minute preconditioning program to run for the battery and carbon-sleeved motors) makes those previous “Plaid” mode pulls feel normal. Its “Cheetah stance” ritual where the air suspension puts you into a lowered launch position sure does amp up the drama beforehand. The warp speed animation in the cluster that pops up on takeoff might look childish or silly (Genesis does a similar thing with the GV60’s Boost function), but one acceleration run will have you thinking it’s apt. The big Tesla’s weight doesn’t show at all when under acceleration, but it makes an abrupt appearance when cornering and braking.

The brakes offer an assuring stiffness from the pedal, but this big sedan doesn’t slow down with as much enthusiasm as its straight-line performance might suggest. Handling is par for the course when it comes to big grand tourers, but with the usual electric twist. Its low center of gravity imbues confidence to send it into a corner with speed, and the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires make sure you don’t run out of grip. That said, the Model S Plaid feels a bit unsure of itself and a little twitchy when you start pushing harder. On one long highway cloverleaf, we actually heard and felt the front tire under load briefly rub against the wheel liner. That isn’t supposed to happen! We’re left with the fairly obvious conclusion that the Plaid is no sports car with sports-car handling. We also weren’t expecting it to be. The yoke also does more to hurt matters here, as it seems to require a lot of minute steering inputs, and the width of the yoke itself is just plain awkward to contend with when you’re pushing this stupid-quick EV down a twisty road.


Dial everything back to full comfort, and while the Plaid offers nothing close to the refinement and ride control of a Mercedes-Benz EQS, it’s no penalty box either. A couple stints on Michigan’s rough highways tells us that the Plaid will be a relatively comfortable cruiser, but for its price, you can do much better (for instance, an EQS). Ambient noises and road noise isolation are subpar for its luxury car price. Just as the interior materials are worse for wear after 19,000 extra-hard miles, this Model S suffered from a few different rattles and vibrations that were either constant or intermittent throughout our whole time with the car.About 50 of our 100 miles were spent on the highway, so we spent as much time as we could testing out Autopilot. This particular car was equipped with Tesla’s “Enhanced Autopilot” and the “Full-Self Driving Capability” options. We’ll note here now that there are no full-self-driving cars for sale today, including this Tesla Model S. “Full-Self Driving Capability,” as it’s called by Tesla, is simply an advanced driver assistance system — emphasis on assistance — because you still need to give the car your 100% undivided attention and keep your hands on the wheel. We wish that this car had the FSD Beta activated so that we could’ve given that a whirl, but it did not.

As driver assistance systems go, Autopilot behaved quite well. Its ability to trace an accurate path through curves is top notch, right around the same level as GM’s Super Cruise technology. The “Navigate on Autopilot” portion of the system works as advertised. Input a destination and the Model S automatically merges over into the exit lanes and highway interchanges for you, all while automatically passing slower cars on the way there. Super Cruise can’t do that. If there’s a fault to be found here, it’s the aggressiveness at which it tries to merge. On multiple occasions, the car would flip the turn indicator on as someone was creeping into our blind spot. It wouldn’t move over into that car, but that’s enough to spook someone into thinking they’re going to merge into you, and it just feels rude.



Also of note, everybody you see in a Tesla who is paying zero attention to the road ahead of them — and we see a lot of them — is a serious road hazard and accident waiting to happen. We had to take the wheel and yank it away from semi trucks on multiple occasions, and there was another misstep where the car meandered out of its lane on a curve, coming far too close to traffic in that lane. In the end, we’re left with the impression that Autopilot is one of the most advanced driver assistance systems out there, but like most systems in cars today, it still needs nannying. We’d much rather eat up highway miles in a Cadillac Escalade or GMC Sierra on Super Cruise, and GM’s driver attention safeguards mean we’d rather share the road with them as well.

As for the other tech in the car, the Model S features one of the more intuitive and easier-to-use infotainment systems. The screen is easily the quickest to load and features the best response times of any other infotainment system out there, which is brutally necessary, as there are no hard button shortcuts for often used controls. Mapping out a route with Tesla’s Supercharger network is an amazingly seamless experience, and while we didn’t get to sample the network in the 100 miles of driving, it’s still a big advantage for Tesla over the patchwork charging networks you’ll find when trying to charge anything besides a Tesla. Despite all of these pluses, we’re still sad to see the total lack of support for either Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.

We haven’t even mentioned range yet, but know that the Plaid with 21-inch wheels as tested here is currently EPA-rated for 348 miles on a full charge. Real-world range tests have shown the Model S doesn’t actually cover as much ground as it’s rated for, as opposed to other EVs that tend to outperform their range ratings. It’s still hard to critique the Model S too hard here, though, as even a lower number would be outstanding when compared to other high-performance electric vehicles.After stepping out of the Plaid for the last time, we’re left feeling that this is a car of multiple stories. You can utterly trounce anything else on the road in a straight line. It handles well enough for its size and class, and the tech really does deserve a lot of the praise it receives. That said, anybody turning in a similarly-priced luxury car for a Model S Plaid is going to be seriously disappointed in the interior quality, luxury and overall design. Cars with similar price tags, including the electric Mercedes-Benz EQS, Lucid Air and BMW i7, have interiors that look and feel like they should cost that much. Tesla’s flagship does not. The yoke can’t go away quickly enough, and Autopilot is no glorious godsend of a system that perfectly assists you in every situation. In many ways, the Plaid is very much the quintessential American muscle sedan with a dash of luxury tossed in on the side. Big on flash, bang and speed. Everything else … well, it’ll do.

It’s dumbfounding. Mind-altering. Verging on uncomfortable. The speed at which nature passes you by through the windshield and the side windows is akin to pushing high triple digits in an old “Need for Speed” video game, watching the world bend and stretch around you in that game-ish way.

The Norwegians at Motor.no wanted to see which electric vehicles are the least affected by low temperatures in the northern country. The Tesla Model S showed impressive results, going the furthest on a charge. It also showed one of the smallest range degradations due to the cold.

Cold weather affects EVs more than combustion vehicles, sometimes cutting their range in half. This has been demonstrated time and again and is one of the first things EV detractors bring into the conversation. Nevertheless, the fact that Norway, a country that spans well beyond the Polar Circle, has the largest EV adoption rate in the world should be enough as a counter-argument. Almost 80% of the new cars sold in Norway in 2022 were battery-powered, which means Norwegians know more about EVs than most other nations.

Norway is a northern territory where snow and cold rule this time of the year. In the winter, even in the southern regions, temperature drop below 20 degrees Fahrenheit (-7 degrees Celsius). This was also the case during the EV range test that the journalists from Motor.no organized. Nevertheless, going up into the mountains meant the temperature dropped to minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit (-20 degrees Celsius), putting a lot of stress on an EV’s battery.

Twenty-nine electric cars were assessed, including three Teslas, the Model S, Model X Plaid, and Model Y RWD. The itinerary was the same for all of them, although not all cars in the test followed it until the end, as they ran out of battery along the way. The test was simple: drive the car until it gets stuck with zero battery. The drivers used the Eco mode but no Autopilot, cruise control, or other driving aids.

The Tesla Model S was the only EV in the test to cover more than 500 km (310 miles) on a charge. It traveled 530 km (329 miles), representing a 16.40% deviation from the specified WLTP range of 634 km (394 miles). This is an impressive achievement considering the extremely low temperatures during the test. To be fair, the Model S also had the biggest range of all the cars in the test, although only one showed a smaller range penalty than the Model S: the Maxus Euniq6, an affordable EV made by SAIC in China (-10.45%).

The other Teslas in the test fared worse, with the Model X Plaid in the 6th position (444 km / 276 miles, an 18.23% range penalty versus the specified WLTP range). The Model Y RWD, a very popular model in Europe, traveled 335 km (208 miles), 26.93% below its specified range.

The Model S result breaks the previous record of the Tesla Model 3, which drove 521 km ( 324 miles) in last year’s test. The Model S’s result is even more impressive, considering the battery refused to charge to more than 98%. If you’re curious about how your EV of choice fares in the harsh Norwegian winter, you can go to Motor.no and see the results.

People nearby Tesla's Fremont factory have checked out newly produced Model S and Model X to see whether they come with the HW4 sensor suite. While they still couldn't find evidence of additional cameras, people discovered that the refreshed Model S and Model X Plaid cars now feature the same fake brake calipers as the Model Y Performance.

The Model S Plaid and Model X Plaid are the most powerful cars Tesla has ever produced. The EV maker targets the car enthusiast crowd with these models, and people drive them on race tracks and drag strips across the country. Given their capabilities, you'd expect Tesla to fit them with performance components in key systems, like suspension, braking, and so on. Indeed, both Plaid models are advertised with "Higher thermal capability brake calipers," a refreshed wording introduced in January on its website.

While nobody could comprehend what the higher thermal capability meant for Plaid owners, many recalled Tesla's controversial move in the Model Y Performance case. Unlike the S/X Plaid models, the Model Y Performance still has what Tesla promises to be "performance brakes" on its Design Studio webpage. Nevertheless, people have discovered that the EV maker replaced the previous performance brakes with regular brakes and installed a fancy red caliper cover to make them look like they mean business.

This enraged many Tesla owners, although it's fair to assume that all those price cuts and insane profit margins must come from somewhere. We were among the first to report the fake brake calipers in the Tesla Model Y Performance, and I am fairly certain that the Model 3 Performance has received a similar treatment. That's why the first thing that crossed my mind when Tesla said the brakes on the Plaid models have higher thermal capability was, "do they come with plastic covers?"

People are inherently positive, judging by the tone in forums and social media. Instead of thinking of something bad, they expected Tesla to install even higher-rated brakes, possibly with 4/6 calipers on the Plaid models. Sadly, this turned out to be not true. All Model S and Model X Plaid cars shipping now appear to have red plastic covers over the non-performance calipers and rotors, just like it was the case with the Model Y Performance back in January.

Tesla is flat-out deceiving its customers, who still think they get the performance brakes like in the good old days. To have this happening on a $115,000+ car is outrageous, but it pretty much explains why Tesla has updated the top speed of the Model S Plaid certified in Europe. Specifically, the new certification indicates a maximum speed of 174 mph/280 kph, down from 186 mph/300 kph. It's not much, but it shows that the new brakes are not up to the task, despite having "higher thermal capability."

We know Tesla is preparing to offer the Carbon Ceramic brake kit as an option for the Plaid models. This is necessary to unlock the maximum advertised 200-mph (322-kph) top speed of the Model S Plaid. The plastic covers would likely make people who are serious about racing their Tesla consider the upgrade. But is it worth it to tarnish your brand over this?

Several Tesla Model S owners complained on Tesla Motors Club forums that the service center physically removed the radar sensors from their vehicles. The explanation is that the sensors are no longer used following the transition to Tesla Vision.

Software companies pioneered a new sales model, where the customers only pay for using the software. Features can be added or removed at the developer's discretion, even if you "bought" them. Sometimes, the whole computer program was killed, leaving people who bought it with nothing. While people got accustomed to not owning the software, it is a common understanding that you own the hardware you buy. This is all the more true for cars, where every feature and option you paid for would be yours (or is transferred to the next owner along with the car) until the vehicle gets scrapped.

Recent years brought the blurring of lines between owning and renting hardware features, and Tesla is the carmaker that started the trend. All Tesla vehicles are shipped with all the hardware needed, although certain features are behind a paywall. You pay if you want and when you want to use them. Other carmakers followed suit, with some making bizarre choices of locking seat heating or CarPlay support. Still, none tried to physically remove components from people's cars during the ownership and pretend it was OK.

Well, none except Tesla. Several Model S owners shared on forums and social media that Tesla initiated a service campaign to remove the radar sensors from vehicles with them. The explanation was that the sensors aren't needed anymore because a software update made them (or is about to make them) obsolete. Instead, Tesla Vision would take over, offering similar functionality. Yet, instead of disabling them in software, Tesla took the step to remove the sensors physically, annoying owners. Worse, this happens when people check in Service Centers for unrelated issues.

When asked why Tesla wanted to do that, they were offered diverse explanations. Some were told the sensors still consume energy and that removing them would make the car more efficient. Others learned that the radar sensors are prone to water ingress, which is no better than the former explanation. What's puzzling is that many people kept their cars specifically because they were fitted with radar sensors. As good as Tesla Vision is, it can't compete with radar in certain situations. Tesla acknowledged that and shipped the newer Model S EVs with HW4 sensor suite, which includes an HD radar sensor.

Removing radar sensors is just one way Tesla assumes ownership of car parts people paid for. When people replace their battery packs, Tesla keeps the old pack. Even if defective, these packs still hold much value and can be remanufactured. In the case of the Model S, Tesla later sold remanufactured packs to people replacing their batteries for around $14,000 plus taxes. The same happens when you upgrade the wheels on your Tesla. You're not getting your old wheels back, Tesla keeps them. It seems like the EV maker thinks that everything on the vehicles actually belongs to Tesla, not the car's owner.