I drove one for quite some miles. Very impressive car. I posted a Youtube video of acceleration with 3 full size adults in the car.
Road And Track got 4.1 seconds 0-60mph
http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-revi...-tesla-model-s
Just as the article says, the car is a breeze to accelerate with controllable/massive torque from 0 rpm. Virtually no tires spin ever. Just quiet, quick, plant you in the seat acceleration.
Drag times has the time slip of the Tesla running low 12's. And 0-60mph in 3.9 seconds.
http://www.dragtimes.com/blog/tesla-...m_medium=email
So pretty quick for a 4700lb car with with a motor the size of a small office trash can.
Look how small the motor is:
http://www.dragtimes.com/blog/wp-con...el-s-motor.jpg
The center of gravity is under 17"high on this car. It corners at .91g.
Soon as battery technology evolves, can you imagine putting another of these 400+ hp motors in the front ALSO? How about 832 HP, with a motor that can be selected to turn on any time from totally cold to full acceleration, efficiently (unlike a internal combustion engine)
So think of this, although a petrol car can generate these numbers with lots of revving, launch control, etc, many of them won't even catch the Tesla till you are going 100mph. Yet the Tesla will accelerate like this effortlessly from an intersection without even making any noise. You can pin your passengers in the seat without making the obvious effort of winding a petrol engine towards redline. So at speeds below 100mph, which is where most of us drive 99% of the time, this powerband is very useful. It just happens instantly without notice in the Tesla S. That is a very fun thing to surprise your passengers like that!
So in the future, can you imagine a car with 832HP, and still capable of cruising along at 70-80mpge? It will totally be possible, and probably doable right now for a couple hundred thousand. And I really believe with over 800hp, people would be in line to buy a car like that at those prices. But again...soon as battery technology evolves, electric propulsion will be the wave of the future.
I still can't get over that little motor propelling over 5000lbs in test weight that quickly......