If you do take a test drive, you’ll notice a unique feature, even for electric cars. The regenerative braking—which repurposes the motor as a generator to recover the car’s kinetic energy when you’re decelerating—is controlled solely by the accelerator. As you lift off the pedal, the motor absorbs up to 60 kW (81 hp), producing nearly 0.2 g of braking at low speeds. That’s a fair amount of deceleration, but we quickly adjusted to driving the Tesla using only its right pedal.

A benefit of this approach is that the left pedal controls the hydraulic brakes, so there’s none of the mismatched blending of regen- and friction-brake feel that plagues other electrics. It also serves as an efficient driving reminder, because you only need the brake pedal when you don’t properly anticipate your stop. If you must slow quickly, however, the Model S’s hydraulic brakes can stop from 70 mph in a mere 160 feet—an average deceleration rate of 1.02 g