Few production vehicles in the world can keep up with the Tesla Model S. Regardless of how you feel about electric cars, there’s absolutely no debating the 1,020-horsepower drivetrain that launches this super sedan to 60 mph in two seconds and through the quarter-mile in less than 10. The trade-off for that kind of acceleration is top speed, where EVs generally don’t match combustion-powered vehicles.
The key word there is generally, because the Model S Plaid in this recent video from AutoTopNL most definitely has 200-mph capability. In normal configuration, Tesla limits the top speed to 166 mph, and we’ve seen a previous Model S Plaid reach that speed in just 14 seconds. This Model S Plaid has no such limiter; it’s fitted with a track package and a full-size steering wheel, and in the hands of a capable driver on a blissfully empty stretch of German autobahn, it’s exercised to the limit.
In this case, the limit is 328 kph, which equals precisely 203.8 mph. The highway is actually quiet enough for a full-on acceleration run from a standstill, so in addition to a 200-mph run, we see just how ridiculously quick the Model S Plaid gets there. The video shows 100 kph (62 mph) arriving in 2.56 seconds, followed by 200 kph (124 mph) in just 6.82 seconds. From there, the official timer gives us a quarter-mile time of 9.62 seconds and a half-mile time of 15.03 seconds. We see a one-mile time of 24.22 seconds, but by then, the driver had already lifted from the throttle.
Unfortunately, there is no recorded time from dead-stop to flat-out. But if we go by the time stamps on the video we can say the sprint takes approximately 22.5 seconds. That matches up with the one-mile time as well, since the driver is already slowing down at the mile-mark. And it’s all done in an eerie silence.
The video concludes with the Model S Plaid turning some laps at Circuit Paul Ricard in France. While there’s certainly no question about the super sedan’s straight-line speed, the track package certainly helps in the corners as well. Tesla recently reclaimed the Nurburgring lap record for a production EV, covering the Nordschleife in 7 minutes 25.23 seconds.
