2022 Tesla Model S

It seems hard to believe but the Tesla Model S recently celebrated its 10th birthday. That’s right, the first S rolled off the line in June of 2012. That it remains one of the best electric cars on the market after all this time is a testament to how good this design is. Its styling is very familiar, but it still looks and performs like a star. Even the base model offers zero-to-60 in 3.1 seconds and 405 miles of range, while the high-performance Plaid will leave McLarens eating dust.

Tesla hasn’t been standing still, of course. The S has been updated many times in the past decade and most recently last year. 2021’s upgrades saw the lineup simplified to the dual-motor base model (formerly the Long Range) and the triple-motor Plaid, which replaced the old Performance model. The interior also got a major upgrade, with a new landscape-style 17-inch infotainment screen and a Knight Rider-esque yoke steering wheel. Many of the upgrades made a good car better, but we’re not sold on the yoke.

The competition hasn’t stood still either. 2022 is the first year where truly competitive products (and ones without a certain CEO’s accumulating baggage) are knocking on the door. The Mercedes-Benz EQS doesn’t offer as much range, but it’s fast, huge inside and much more luxurious. The Lucid Air offers more range, much more room and models with even more power than the Plaid. Smaller, better-handling challengers like the Audi e-tron GT and Porsche Taycan are less practical but desirable in other ways, but the S still has lots of cards to play.

First off, there’s performance. Both versions of the S are fast, but the Plaid offers speed that can embarrass brand-new Ferraris, at least in a straight line, and it is exhilaratingly, unrepentantly fun to drive in the same way a Dodge Charger Hellcat is, only faster. Second, the S has a range and charging advantage. It offers lots of range and good energy efficiency, but also access to Tesla’s Supercharger network (originally created for the S) that often provides reliable fast charging that’s still superior to commercial networks. 

The S’ weak points are on the inside. You do acclimatize to the yoke wheel after a while, but it’s a pain in parking lots or on very windy roads. Also, placing the turn signal, horn and wiper controls on the wheel seems counterintuitive and likely to confuse drivers. The screens look great, but the learning curve can be steep for the uninitiated and all the menus are distracting. The cabin also feels closer to Honda than Lucid or Mercedes, both of which offer bigger backseats. That said, there isn’t any car this fast that offers this much cargo space.

Even after all this time, however, the S offers lots of cutting-edge tech. That includes a host of sophisticated active-safety features that still aren’t necessarily standard elsewhere, though the “Full Self-Driving” option isn’t one we recommend. Tesla has no dealerships and service centers are thin on ground in some parts of the country, which are some of the many quirks of Tesla life. It isn’t a conventional experience, but the Model S is the car that made EVs desirable, and it’s still a desirable car today.

Performance: 15/15

There are now two basic versions of the Model S, the standard AWD model (formerly the Long Range) and the Plaid (which replaces the former Performance model). Most drivers will find both versions very fast. The base dual-motor, with its 670 combined horsepower, will zoom to 60 mph in 3.1 seconds, but the Plaid is on another level.

With 1,020 hp and an instantaneous 1,050 pound-feet of torque from its trio of electric motors, the Plaid is tremendously fast. Floor it from a standstill and you feel the G-forces viscerally as the car rockets to 60 mph in just over 2 seconds. Even at highway speed, the surge of power is instant, amazing and hugely entertaining. Going 50 to 80 mph takes less than 2 seconds. Aside from various hypercars or the performance versions of the Lucid Air, there’s not much a Plaid can’t pass, and usually quite easily.

But for all that thrust, the S is perfectly usable as a family car at low speeds around town. There are also “Chill” and “Sport” acceleration settings, but even leaving it in “Plaid” mode doesn’t affect daily driver usability. Unlike hypercars, the S is as pleasant around town as a Honda Accord. If you’re repeatedly stopping from high speeds, the brakes do fade, but in normal driving, it shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

It handles fairly well on twisty roads, although the steering isn’t the most communicative, and even the big 21-inch wheels don’t make the ride unduly harsh. 

The only real drawback on said twisty roads? The yoke steering wheel, which makes maneuvering on tight and windy roads at speed a chore. Parking lots and U-turns are also aggravating. 

Range, Energy Use & Charging: 15/15

The Lucid Air may have finally knocked the Model S out of its longtime position as the king of electric range, but the Model S can still go a very long way on a charge. The standard dual-motor offers up to 405 miles of range and 120 MPGe according to the EPA while the Plaid can return up to 396 and 116 MPGe. Fit the Plaid with the nicer 21-inch wheels and the range drops to 348 miles and 101, which is still better than 85% of other EVs on the market. In the real world, usable range is shorter, particularly if you’re lead-footing it on the highway. But Tesla’s charging infrastructure helps make up for that. 

Like all Teslas, it also has the advantage of the automaker’s Supercharger network, which was first constructed to help support Model S owners in the early 2010s. While Teslas can use some commercial networks like EVgo and use Level 2 home chargers for slow (typically overnight) charging the same way other EVs do, the Supercharger network generally offers the most reliable and hassle-free charging of any EV network.

Using the massive power of the Plaid does deplete range, particularly highway driving, but it charges quickly. On one typical charge on the Plaid we added 163 miles of range in 23 minutes for a cost of $22. 

Safety & Driver Assistance Tech: 13/15

The Tesla Model S hasn’t been evaluated by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), and hasn’t been tested by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in more than five years. However, the structure of the 2022 Model S is very similar to that of the 2016 and earlier models, which NHTSA awarded a five-star rating.

On the active-safety front, automatic emergency braking, forward collision warnings, side collision warnings, blind spot monitoring, lane departure warnings with lane keep assist are all standard, as is a very smooth adaptive cruise control system, all part of the Tesla’s Autopilot suite. Standard Autopilot is quite good and offers reliable Level 2 advanced driving operation, but many other cars at much lower price points now offer similar systems. Tesla goes further in providing two optional upgrades.

The first package is Enhanced Autopilot ($6,000) which adds long-range highway navigation on Autopilot, Auto Lane Change, Autopark, Summon and Smart Summon. This is similar to systems like Hyundai’s Highway Drive Assist and GM’s Super Cruise, and features like Autopark can also be found on competing vehicles like the Lexus LS. 

The second package is the $12,000 “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) option, which includes traffic light recognition and limited off-highway autonomy (with an attentive driver). FSD works fairly well in open highway environs but it’s quite sensitive, sometimes randomly slowing the vehicle to 30 mph in a 65-mph zone because it perceives an issue even when there isn’t one. We must stress that “Full Self-Driving” and “Autopilot” ARE NOT fully autonomous systems and should not be treated as such. Since FSD is not yet fully cooked, costs a fortune and doesn’t seem to offer much beyond Enhanced Autopilot, we can’t recommend it.

Comfort & Room: 11/15

With 42.4 inches of front legroom and 39.7 inches of forward headroom, there’s plenty of space up front in the S, and the glass roof and yoke steering wheel only make the forward cockpit seem more open and airy. Considering the S’ size, however, rear legroom is mediocre, at 35.5 inches (only a hair more than the smaller Model 3) even if headroom is still a generous 38.1. The seats are firm, supportive and comfortable and heated or ventilated up front.

Lucid Air and Mercedes-Benz EQS offer much larger back seats and generally much plusher accommodations. The S is available in several interior colors and the materials are nice, but the competing products from Lucid and Mercedes are beautifully detailed and feel more aligned with their price tags.

Infotainment: 12/15

Almost every function in the Model S is routed through its central 17-inch, landscape touchscreen. Even the gearshift is now on this screen, which takes some getting used to. Happily, there’s also a digital instrument and road-monitoring display right in front of the driver, so glancing for your speed and the situation around you is easier than in the Model 3 or Model Y. As in those vehicles, however, the car’s cameras create a very high-quality display of the traffic around you.

While the learning curve for the big center screen is significant for such a comprehensive system, basic things like adjusting the HVAC controls or changing the radio station don’t involve more than two or three taps once you know the interface. The graphics are beautiful and amazingly crisp, but many of the icons are small and the system isn’t exactly intuitive.

There are many infotainment integrations, and even rear passengers get an 8-inch display on which they can watch Netflix, but curiously there are a variety of things you can’t get. There are some surprising omissions—you can’t listen to AM radio and the S does not support Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. That rear screen is also very hard to reach for kids, which matters only to a small subset of folks, but it does matter.

Cargo Space & Storage: 15/15

There’s no other vehicle with the Model S’ performance capability that offers as much cargo space, largely thanks to its hatchback layout. Open the huge hatch and there are 25 cubic-feet behind the rear seats. Fold them down and the space opens up to an SUV-like 61.4. If that’s not enough, there’s a 3.1 cubic-foot frunk to provide secure, out-of-sight storage for smaller items. 

The Lucid Air has a huge trunk for a sedan and an even larger frunk than the S, but falls short overall. The only vehicles that come close to this kind of space are the Volkswagen Arteon and Audi A7. The A7 might be a competitor for those who will cross-shop gas-powered cars, but the S is a cargo champ. The only Achilles’ heel is small item storage for rear passengers: There just isn’t much.

Style & Design: 6/10

The Model S is a very familiar sight after 10 years in production, but designer Franz von Holzhausen’s styling has aged extremely well. The visual updates the company has made to the car, most recently even cleaner-looking bumpers and the Plaid’s subtle spoiler, have only improved it. It still looks athletic and ready for action in ways that the more patrician Lucid Air and lozenge-like Mercedes EQS do not. But there are still only five colors, and anything but white means paying a minimum of $1,500 extra.

The interior is spare and clean, and the screens and the heavily tinted glass roof look great, but the interior overall doesn’t really live up to the price tag. Were it not for the giant screen and typical Tesla details, this could be a Honda Accord interior, and we’ve seen quality issues with the interior materials firsthand.

Of course, there’s also the yoke. It looks cool, you acclimatize to it fairly quickly and it’s not uncomfortable, but it can be seriously ungainly when maneuvering the car in tight places. Migrating the turn signals and wipers to buttons on the yoke makes for very clean visuals, but also seems like an answer to a question nobody asked. In a panic situation or at high speed, drivers will reach for the traditional locations of controls, and it’ll take a very long time to overcome that instinct.

Is the 2022 Tesla Model S Worth it? Which Model S is the Best Value? 

Whether you love or hate the yoke, the plain-ish interior or the CEO, the Model S still offers very impressive speed, range and charging capability even after a very long time on the market. It costs more than ever, starting at $106,190 (including a $1,200 destination fee*) but the 670-hp base model dual-motor still delivers more than 400 miles of range, lots of cargo space and plenty of features.

The Plaid costs much more at $137,190 without any options and in refrigerator white, but to get this kind of performance elsewhere means spending even more, either on the Lucid Air Grand Touring (which may appeal for reasons beyond performance but costs $155,650) or on a hypercar like the McLaren Artura, which still isn’t as fast, at least not in a straight line.

There are some tradeoffs, however. Tesla doesn’t have the best record when it comes to ease of service or collision repairs. Its service network is spotty outside of major cities, and some owners have experience lengthy waits for repairs and both assembly and materials quality can be uneven.

Also, Teslas no longer qualify for any federal tax credits, so the price is the price even if, on Tesla’s website, the listed price is sometimes displayed as a lower-than-accurate figure with an explanation of it being “offset by fuel savings.” Maybe, but fuel savings over time don’t change the upfront cost of the car.

*Prices as of the time of this writing.

How Much Does it Cost to Insure the Tesla Model S?

Tesla insurance costs are notoriously high and the Model S is not a cheap car to insure. According to our data, the average 30-year-old female driver with a good record can expect an average annual premium of $4,436 for a base S and $5,469 for a Plaid. The Porsche Taycan Turbo S and Audi RS e-tron GT cost more at $6,534 and $5,939, but the lower-trim Taycans and e-tron GTs cost much less. The Mercedes-Benz EQS is similarly high at $5,608, and we expect the Lucid to be comparable. To get a more accurate picture of your potential insurance expenses, see our car insurance calculator.