He has become rich and famous in two decades as the host of an evening talk show, but at the same time Jay Leno has always been a car fan. Since 2014, the owner of a large collection of historical to modern vehicles has been able to pursue this tendency professionally, because he got the new show Jay Leno’s Garage for it. He got to know Tesla back in 2008 when CEO Elon Musk came by with his roadster and bought a Model S a few years later. Now Leno had a Tesla Model Y with him for testing and showed nothing but enthusiasm for it. And he predicted gasoline cars the same fate as the Tesla boss himself.
No Tesla killer anywhere
You should just take Musk seriously, says Leno at the beginning of the garage episode with the latest Tesla. Those who can build rockets and thus safely bring people into space (like Musk recently with his second company SpaceX) obviously have special skills. Before it was really tried, many observers would have predicted a quick end to Tesla once European and especially German manufacturers with electric cars came onto the market. None of this happened, Leno says: Most alternatives have less range or performance than Tesla and are also more expensive.
Leno’s knowledge of cars goes so far that he knows that electric cars were the norm more than 100 years ago: it wasn’t until 1911 that the combustion engine took their place. But this era is now coming to an end: “From this generation on, nothing happens to gasoline cars,” the moderator states. Because electric cars are superior again from now on – or at least for the time being those from Tesla.
“This car is much faster than a muscle car from the 1950s and also as most of today’s sports cars,” explains Leno about his test car, a dark blue Tesla Model Y in the performance version. At the same time, however, it offers plenty of storage space and you can even sleep in it – the moderator demonstrates the second point by lying down in the back of the Tesla with the rear seats folded down. The price of $ 62,000 including all options for this Model Y is not high considering that.
Horse forecast from the Tesla boss
The driving test in the Tesla Model Y also convinced the car connoisseur. He is happy about the strong acceleration, the integrated telephone charger, the clear steering wheel and the vegan seat covers, which would have a real leather look without dead animals. On the way, Leno reports that only Tesla expanded the charging infrastructure at the same time as the vehicle was being produced. Other manufacturers, on the other hand, would only build the electric cars and basically tell their customers that they somehow have to do it themselves with the store.
But here, too, the traditional auto companies will soon follow suit, and so Leno repeated a descriptive forecast that actually came from Tesla boss Musk. In the case of combustion cars, the same development was about to happen as when horses were introduced when cars were introduced: there are probably more horses in the USA than ever before, but they are no longer used as workhorses, but only for pleasure. This is exactly how he can imagine driving an internal combustion engine occasionally in the future too, according to the moderator. But when it comes to efficiency, tranquility and the environment, this is the right choice, says Leno, and points to the Tesla Model Y behind.
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