Tesla Model S First Electric Car Named Motor Trend's Car Of The Year

Motor Trend has announced its "Car of the Year" for 2013 in a shocking move that named the Tesla Model S, an all-electric four-door vehicle that beat out shoo-in competing companies like Porsche, BMW, Lexus and Subaru, in a unanimous decision for the participating judges.

The Tesla Model S is the first Car of the Year winner in the award's 64-year history to not be powered by an internal combustion engine. The Motor Trend site describes it as "one of the quickest American four-doors ever built. It drives like a sports car, eager and agile and instantly responsive. But it's also as smoothly effortless as a Rolls-Royce, can carry almost as much stuff as a Chevy Equinox, and is more efficient than a Toyota Prius. Oh, and it'll sashay up to the valet at a luxury hotel like a supermodel working a Paris catwalk."

While the Car of the Year award has been making strides toward this history-making move, naming the Chevy Volt — a plug-in electric-gas hybrid — its winner for 2011, this is a momentous move not only for electric cars, but for the relatively young company, Tesla, which has made electric vehicle powertrain technology its business, releasing the first fully electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster, in 2008.

“Our aspiration with the Model S was to show that an electric car truly can be better than any gasoline car, which is a critical step towards the widespread adoption of sustainable transport,” said Elon Musk, co-founder and CEO of Tesla Motors. “Nothing illustrates this more clearly than winning Motor Trend’s Car of the Year by unanimous decision against a field of exceptional competitors.”

Watch a video of features and performance of the Tesla Model S here:

Get Uinterview's FREE iPhone App For Daily News Updates here.

Get the FREE Uinterview iPad app here and watch our videos anywhere.