How a Tesla can out-accelerate a Ferrari
According to automotive data expert JATO Dynamics, the fastest-accelerating Ferrari on sale in the UK is the F12 tdf, which can get from 0-62mph in 2.9 seconds. That is very impressive performance (you’d know all about it if you were sitting in the car) but not as impressive as the fact that the Tesla Model S P100D can do the same thing in 2.7 seconds if you select the famous Ludicrous mode. According to some claims, the JATO figure for the Tesla may actually be pessimistic.
At first sight this doesn’t appear to make sense. The two cars have similar power outputs and are almost exactly the same width, but the Tesla is much taller. This gives the Ferrari an aerodynamic advantage which isn’t significant at low speed but has certainly become an important factor well before 62mph. Furthermore, the Ferrari is well over 500kg lighter.
There is no doubt that the F12 tdf would be far quicker round a race circuit. But when it comes to standing-start acceleration, the Model S has it beat.
The Tesla has an immediate advantage in that it’s four-wheel drive and can therefore put its power down more easily than the rear-wheel drive Ferrari can. The key point, however, is that the F12 tdf has a petrol engine, while the Model S has two electric motors, one at each end.
Cars with conventional engines have a problem with starts which electric ones don’t. At the beginning of the process, the engine is turning but the wheels are stationary. You can’t just suddenly connect them because the engine will stall if you do. There has to be a transition process. This will involve slip in the clutch or in the torque convertor of an automatic gearbox, and in extreme cases wheelspin.
Most of us have had to learn to deal with this. The subject came up at the very start of your first driving lesson if your car had a manual gearbox and a clutch pedal. But it’s not a problem with battery-powered cars, because when the car is sitting still, the electric motor is too. To get moving, all you have to do is press the accelerator pedal. The motor turns, and so do the wheels.
This makes electric cars very easy to drive, and it also means they can move away from rest very sharply if you want them to. Even something like the Volkswagen e-Golf, which has only 114bhp and is in no sense a performance model, can get off its mark very quickly, as you’ll soon find out if you give it full power away from a set of traffic lights.
When you’re talking about cars with a 0-62mph time of under three seconds, the transition process becomes very significant. The Ferrari F12 tdf makes a tremendously good job of it, but the Tesla Model S P100D simply ignores it. Like any electric car, it doesn’t spend time matching a turning engine to non-turning wheels. That time amounts to just a fraction of a second, but it’s enough to make the Tesla, in this respect if no other, faster than a Ferrari.