Tesla Model S Plaid Finally Set Nürburgring Record for Production Electric Vehicles

Earlier today a video has been posted showing Tesla running an all-new Model S Plaid at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, and the presumption was that the California electric vehicle brand was aiming for a new record. The electric car production record on the Ring was recently claimed by Porsche with the Taycan Turbo in 2019, just before the car’s official launch, with the German entry recording a time of 7: 42.3. Today, as company CEO and public relations manager Elon Musk confirmed on Twitter, the Plaid achieved a 7: 30.9. Not bad.

As impressive as this time is, there are a few caveats that should be considered before praising the Plaid. First, while this is a new record for a production electric car, there are a handful of lower-horsepower gasoline sedans that have gotten faster laps before, like the Jaguar XE SV Project 8 ( 7: 23,1) or the Porsche Panamera Turbo. (7: 29.81). It’s also worth noting that Porsche set its electric record with the Taycan Turbo, not the big Turbo S, which could potentially beat the Plaid lap again. What is most interesting about all of this, to me, however, is that Tesla would have completed a timed lap at 7:24 with the Plaid prototype in 2019, too!

Who’s putting sandbags here?

None of this is meant to be a blast for Tesla, and realistically, Nürburgring lap times are totally unnecessary anyway and add no meaning or value to a car, as lap times are something. something the company has been working on for a few years, and finally managed to make it happen. Set your goals and manifest them to the world, yo.

For good measure, let’s take a short list of blazingly fast cars that the Model S Plaid had faster lap times than: 2007 Porsche 911 GT2, 2005 Koenigsegg RCC, 2021 Audi RS3, 2019 Renault Megane RS Trophy-R, Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio. Any of them could be considered an awesome car, and the Plaid beat them all. It is not yet known who may have driven the Plaid, but they are surely an impressive talent behind the wheel to pull off this kind of weather. Of course, the car still has a ways to go to catch up to the speed of a 2009 Nissan GT-R (7: 29.0).