Tesla Model S Shooting Brake definitely a one-off
Geneva’s motor show managed to take naysayers within the automotive industry who have suggested car shows have had their time and give them a good shake by the shirt collar.
The show was packed to the Swiss rafters with everything that makes motor shows great; concept cars, hyper cars, interesting city cars, a one-off Bugatti that would set back its willing owner a similar amount to the GDP of Burkina Faso.
Away from most of the rapidly firing camera phones, however, was a new model from electropioneer, Tesla.
That Tesla should take a back seat to more mainstream manufacturers is interesting, but unfortunately Geneva motor show week also coincided with the week in which human meme Elon Musk announced he would be shuttering Tesla retail outlets in favour of an online sales model.
That decision has since been semi-reversed (Tesla announced a percentage price hike on most models, which will allow it to retain some anchor retail stores), but it did enough to take the focus off any hardware the company was touting in Geneva.
The other reason the Tesla on show in the Swiss city this year wasn’t front and centre, is that it was a one-off, built for a collector of unusual station wagons. Thing is though, it quietly made the somewhat dated-looking Model S appear cool once more.
Designed by London-based coachbuilder Niels van Roij, the green wagon was commissioned by a Dutch collector and proved rather fraught to manufacture, too. It seems that the flowing shape of the Model S doesn’t lend itself well to adding extra aluminium. Van Roij has stated that in order to not make it appear like a Model S with a greenhouse perched on the back, he had to go with an elongated Shooting Brake silhouette instead.
The results are stunning. The standard Model S feels a bit bland in this age of I-Paces and e-trons. But the Shooting Brake makeover has given the Tesla an extra sharpness of appearance.
What a pity, then, that the manufacturer is unlikely to take any cues from van Roij’s creation.
While the S is probably nearing the end of its life in its current shape goes, a station wagon variant isn’t going to sell in an SUVdominated market. If anything, Tesla is trying to reduce model complexity, so any fans of electric Shooting Brakes might be best to pin their hopes on design whims of Mercedes, BMW or Polestar.