Car Company of the Year 2015

It was really evident at the Frankfurt motor show in September. When selected Audi, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz personnel talked privately about the show cars (stars) they were displaying, they weren't talking about those cars taking on vehicles from Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Audi.

Instead, they had an upstart start-up from the west coast of the USA in their sights.

Love it or hate it, Tesla was the step-change brand of 2015 and not just here in Aus. From curio to company of note, it grabbed the automotive world's attention and brought along with it the lovers of green energy and high-tech, as well as those with a philosophical opposition to the dependence of the civilised world on OPEC.

We gave Tesla our 2015 Carsales Car of the Year title. The stats don't lie and the projected cost to run, future value and price competitiveness in its comparative set (ie: luxury cars) put the car in a different league. The fact that all of our drivers were very positively disposed to its performance in the real world made it a tough car to beat. And in the end, nothing did.

And this is all in an atmosphere where Tesla itself remains a very prickly company with which to deal. As an entity, Tesla really only wants to do things its way – it refuses to participate in VFACTs and regularly deflects probing questions related to volume and profitability. It has done its best to make sure you can't price or research a Model S via our classified pages too.

Other media outlets have refused to test its cars as it has declined to play ball regarding international trips to its factory and/or access to its senior executives. We took a different tack – we've kept asking the hard questions but done our best to secure and drive the cars in real-world conditions and bring you what information we can glean.

There's a degree of snake oil about the whole Tesla circus and more than a modicum of 'cult of personality' around the man who runs the company, Elon Musk. If I see another headline declaring him the 'Real Tony Stark' I'll do my cruet.

But, the performance of the car does not lie. And the commitment to the company's aims and the level of advocacy from its customers speaks volumes for Tesla and Musk's success to date.

Australia's love of cutting down the tall poppy will reach fever pitch before there's widespread acceptance of Tesla's legitimacy... but it's coming.