First drive: Tesla Model S P85D

So it's really that good?

Top Gear, as you'll know, is not one to blithely embrace the latest, shiniest fad, particularly when it comes to alternative fuels. But the P85D truly feels like a paradigm shift in motoring, the point at which the electric car moves from interesting theory into petrol-pummeling reality.

No, a £79k super-saloon isn't, in and of itself, the solution to all the wider world's motoring woes. No doubt the electric car isn't quite the finished article yet, but consider this: as battery technology improves, the Model S and its offspring will get lighter (and therefore even quicker), and capable of going yet further between charges.

Tesla's rate of improvement, from the original, fast-but-flawed Roadster of 2008 to the P85D, is jaw-dropping. This car asks some pretty serious questions of conventionally fueled performance machines. Whatever follows might just render them all but redundant.

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