The Tesla Model S EV is faster than most average sports cars, and will even give some supercars a good run for their money, up until it starts getting close to 135 mph (216 km/h) limiter, where acceleration begins to noticeably fade.
The real meat of its performance is off-the-mark sprinting, which benefits from the instant delivery of full torque, as well as the punch you’re supposed to get on the move, when you’re just cruising about, and then crank it – it’s the kind of car that would make you do that, I think.
It’s impressive how a watermelon-sized electric motor (the size reference used by Tesla themselves) that sits behind the car’s rear axle can provide this much power and performance, but it does, and all tests so far have proven that it’s up to the job.
However, nobody seems to be able to quite put their fingers on how much power it actually makes, exactly. One dyno test from a few months ago showed it made 386 hp at the wheels, while Tesla itself is a bit more optimistic, rating the car at 416 hp.
And thus, UK magazine Autocar have stepped in to put some rumors regarding the actual figure to the test, with another rolling road run. What they find is that the car actually makes 428.2 hp, which is more than stated, and perhaps one of the reasons why the Model S trounced an Aston Martin Rapide S in a previous video they did.
Sadly, the run did not measure torque output, so the only figure we have to go by is Tesla’s own stated one, of 443 lb-ft, or 600 Nm.
By Andrei Nedelea
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