Sooo,
After hours and hours of unsuccessfully trying to find a single post or thread about driving high speeds on the Autobahn ( or wherever else you one can do it), I decided to take a P100D on the Autobahn.
The results were devastating. Driving higher speeds with the Tesla is a sad affair. First, it barely makes it to 250 km/h, in fact it doesn’t. Then, after approx 15 minutes, it throttles you down to 220, then 200, and so on. Power consumption is astronomical, too, obviously. You’re not going anywhere at higher speeds.
Now, I understand that the market of owners who drive their Teslas at speeds of 200+ is small, but never less, this demographic has a right to know that it’s basically impossible to do so in a Tesla.
So if you’re thinking of buying a Tesla to use it to drive fast on routes like Nuernberg - Munich, forget about it. It ain’t happening. I just wish Tesla would have been more upfront about it...
Many of us have posted about this before, but the direct full-blown test was never directly posted. Thank you for taking it to its ultimate. Most of us who were paying attention could have predicted the results, however. My 2016 S75 (SW S60) could not maintain 116mph for more than a few minutes. It couldn't maintain 112mph without acting like it was mad at me for it. 110mph made it feel beleagered. I had a Mercedes S500 that did fine at 125MPH and 130MPH for hours on end, with it happy to do it, never giving a hint of feeling stressed, with the only impedement being the quality of the tires, suspension, and alignment (basically it was expensive to get it up to proper maintenance level); the engine felt like it was in its happiest state at 130MPH, hinting that it preferred to do more. However, if I downgraded the driving in my MB S500 to 117MPH, the suspension maintenance requirements were a lot more forgiving, and the engine was just bored with me at that speed, and wanted to keep going forever. It was also super comfortable, refined, slick, and quiet.
The Tesla is a bag of rattling bolts in comparison. Think Toyota. All noise and disobedience, no speed.
The only thing I wasn't sure of was what would happen with an air-ride equipped SP100D compared to my spring suspension S60(75)D. Now, I know the answer. It seems about what it would be in a 100 (better, but still not in the same league as a refined ICE).
Yes, Tesla can outdragstrip most cough cars, but in terms of refined excellence for long distance high speed driving, quite frankly, there aren't many roads of that nature in the world, and very few cars made for them. That's just something you have to accept with Tesla. Look elsewhere for that type of vehicle. For most roads, Tesla is fine. For the very few, ...... we have yet more to strive for. Life is interesting!
Remeber, it's early days yet in the modern EV industry. We'll see some capable cars in the upper ranges yet in the next two decades, before self driving is required. Just check it every year or so, and you'll find them. I suspect the 2020 Tesla Roadster to most likely be among them due to its higher all-around performance engineering stats. It's that simple!
I can't for the life of me see how anybody disagrees with your fact-based post. That's insane.
Hrm? A friend told me he can drive even a lowly Model S85 and S90 at 125 mph (200 km/h) for fairly long distances in flat empty states. Now, granted, that's at the low end of yer parameters.
My friend likes to live and to preserve domestic harmony, so has no opinion or experience with 155 mph (250 km/h), although that would certainly be the domain of a P car and not an S if memory serves.
Will be intriguing once the P3(DL) arrives both here and in Europe to see if the restrictions you've noted still hold.
That seems to suggest that if I had an S85 or S90 instead of an S75(S60),
and kept my speed to 125MPH, that I'd be fine, but I was limited to 112MPH and only for a max of a few minutes, all along the car complaining, rather than telling me it had no problem going higher (like in my MB); (75/85)*125=110, so perhaps the magic number is 110MPH for S75, 125MPH for S85, and I guess about 145MPH for S100, but actually wind resistance is more than linear at those speeds, so perhaps much less, like 130MPH or so in a S100. I would love more testing. But 130MPH < 155MPH, so maybe finding the right MPH is the key. Obviously, numbers don't lie.
I've had my P85D at those speeds in Montana and while the energy use is extremely high, I never had a problem with maintaining the speeds. The problem for me is that at the speeds indicated you cover a lot of ground, fast. I ran out of usable road before I ran out power or the ability to stay at those speeds.
Me & OP didn't run out of road.
Model S is a family sedan car and it's never been intended as a race car. As a matter of fact, the warranty is voided if it is used for racing. I don't see how much more upfront than that!
It just happens that the torque is so great that people love to do drag racing but I have never seen a Tesla can win in a long race.
If it did, you would hear that by now.
Note that gasoline cars can drive much faster than Tesla capped speed at 155 MPH.
Exactly.
Also to the Bjorn tests: I watched every second of them. He didn't go full speed for long distances; he picked busy times of day and week, so that wasn't possible.
The problem is that at those speeds at night you are outdriving your headlights so by the time you see it (whatever it is) it is too late!
Once again, depends on the car. Good headlights, lots of attention.
Very rare circumstances, and the lensing effect of the air due to heat wave variances, the chemical composition of the air, and a million other factors come into control. Very few roads, very few times of day, times of week, and times of year, very few actual circumstances, is this even possible.
Im convinced the Model 3 will not have this reduced-power issue thanks to a new motor design (switched reluctance) and a better motor cooling system. Range at ultra-high speed will continue to be an issue though. There is no way to get around the drag issue without using a Roadster-sized battery.
Tesla needs to use this motor in the S and X sooner rather than later.
Or how about just keep that kind of performance in the Roadster? If anybody is looking for Lux Autobahn, they can grab maybe something like a Lucid Air or some other thing.
I grew up in Germany and tried to drive faster than 200 km/h many times. It is very difficult to find the right Autobahn that allows driving that fast safely for an extended period of time. Finding a day
That tells me you weren't serious. Mostly these speeds are very late night or early morning things.
I love Tesla overall. They can make cars that go quite fast. But, it is what it is! No hate intended.
It's in the engineering. Know your stats. For most of us, we'll never need to do Autobahn speeds.
On the other hand, if Elon starts building skyways that are 1 mile in the air and have a minimum speed limit of 130MPH, then we'd need a new lineup of cars to achieve that.
