Tesla Model 3 High-Speed Test on German Autobahn

[Candleflame]

How did this guy get a Model 3 registered for road use in Europe, given that Tesla has not done the homologation process for EU yet?

no need to. you can drive with a foreign license plate up to... i think 6 months or 12 months. I don't think you would need an european inspection/roadcheck but you would still need to follow the law i.e. cars need to have working headlights, brakes etc.

you can see in the video that his Model 3 does not have a front license plate. that would not be legal for registration in any EU country (I think with a UK registration you can usually get away with putting the license plate in the frontwindow as they have a good height tolerance there). So we can be certain that it is registered abroad.

 

[jurgeneiffe]

I found this interesting.

its nice ,but Germans drive mostly diesel on Autobahn ,every VW Passat 2.0 d is better for long run exept acceleration which is not so importand on Highway.You drive it at 180-200 kmh with ease.And so 600-800 km distance.Not speaking of long distance cruisers as BMW 5-6-7 or MB E/S Class and diesel of course.I live now in UK and saw many AMG MG ,and they have 70mph speed limit ! Tesla is nice ,but no really make sense ,better Nissan Leaf when you anyway drive only to work 10-50 km.But it will be quite interesting ,diesel are passe and from 2030 every new registered car in Germany should be electric.So I dont believe most of ppl spend money on something what goes only fast when it wants . OK I hope for electric car going 1000km with average speed lets say like pregnant woman so 160kmh (100mph

 

[alfagiulia]

I live in Germany. There are few stretches of Autobahn where you can drive faster than 220kph for more than 2 minutes without being slowed by traffic, speed restrictions, or baustellen. It is a massively overcrowded country with trucks that drive far too slowly (forcing slower traffic to overtake constantly) and highways that should have been expanded decades ago. It's not really the high speed that will deplete the battery. It's the maddening gas break gas break gas break repetition.

 

[mongo]

I believe some EV companies are experimenting with adding 2 gears to EVs for this reason.

Unless the motor efficiency drops off appreciably at high RPM, gearing won't change power consumption.
It would impact top speed, if that were voltage limited.

 

[Matt L]

I’ve spent a lot of time driving in Germany. I find this topic mostly academic. The VAST majority of German roadways are highly congested. Chances are you will spend much more time in a stau (German word for traffic jam) than you will be even averaging 100km/h.

Very rarely do you encounter unlimited zones with little congestion. The places I have were in the former east.

 

[StellarRat]

A BMW 535i gets ~12mpg at at 120mph and has a 18.5gal tank (big for a mid-size sedan). That translates to 222miles on a tank. At 140mph it's a 166 mile range. A VW Golf 1.4 TSA gets ~200miles per tank at 120mph. The bottom line: the Model 3 gets roughly 1/2 the range of an ICE at crazy Autobahn speeds for extended periods of time.

I suspect Tesla is going to have to tweak their software for the German market, which is pretty much unique compared to the rest of the world. There are obviously a few bugs that you wouldn't find on American roads.

Fuel Consumption at Higher Speeds

The absolute longest distance before you leave the country is 517.6 miles (per the web). I wonder if this is truly important?

 

[Lasttoy]

Its easy to drive USA car in Europe, you only need international insurance. I lived there 10 yrs, i saw a lot of plates from usa. But mostly Porche.
I drive my S very fast for our standards, the battery drain is crazy fast at over 100 mph. Ie; to go 45 miles at over 100 mph it burns an extra 20 miles of juice. This is not a car for sustainable high speeds. I had a deTomaso Pantera in Germany. Going 120 or more for full tank was an everyday occurrence. I dont think the S could sustain this everyday? And there would have to be a charger where I stopped? Or i would be in trouble .