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I test drove an S a few months ago, talked to the sales guy. Lowest pressure sales guy ever - he never even asked me if I wanted to buy one, we just spent an hour or more shootin' the breeze and zipping around town.

Anyway, the deal with the S model and it's 250+ mile range and "super charging" system is pretty slick. It's on-board navigation system knows the locations of all the Tesla charging stations and is integrated with Google maps. You put in your trip, and it not only plans your route for you it includes the charging stations between. Go here, hit this recharging station for 10 or 15 min, go here, hit this one for 10 min, finally stop here, top off your charge and then on to your destination etc.

On a long trip, stopping every 150 miles or so (couple of hours) is just a good idea no matter diesel/gas/electric. The super charge stations can put back something like 80% of an S's charge in 20 min. The route planning tries to minimize the stops down to about 10 min or so. Long enough for a bio-break, grab a drink/snack, stretch your legs, check your phone, then back at it. So it really doesn't cost you any time.

The '3' model supports super charge. Apparently it has a smaller battery so it will be able to get more of a charge (as a percentage of capacity) in less time. Probably still a viable road-trip car, but maybe just a little more annoying on the forced breaks.

Still, I hear you on the flexibility and options standpoint. Yes, an electric, even one of the better (range) ones like the current crop of Teslas or the Volt et. - al. are going to impose some constraints. They're not going to be for everyone. Hey, 4 door hatchbacks aren't for everyone, 3/4 ton 4x4 aren't either. I like the choices. Now, if we can just keep the libtards and greenie-weenies from trying to force everyone to go electric regardless... ;-/