German autobahns offer unparalleled terrain for intensive testing of electric cars. Max Freyss wanted to push his Tesla Model 3 SR+ to its maximum speed and observe the impact of this treatment on consumption.
Warnings
Driving at extreme speeds is dangerous, both in terms of road safety and the lifespan of lithium-ion batteries. We therefore advise motorists and readers of Automobile Propre not to try to reproduce our tests to excess.
Our overall approach aims to demonstrate both that the performances announced by Tesla for its Model 3 SR+ are indeed there, but that it is not necessarily interesting to seek to exploit them in full.
Always discovering his electric car a little more, Max Freyss wanted through a video ” educational and entertaining » check the possibility of approaching top speed with this machine, determining the time required to reach this speed from a standstill and evaluating the impact of this speed on fuel consumption.
Some numbers
The autonomy indicated by Tesla for its Model 3 SR+ 2021 was 448 kilometers when our videographer placed his order. Equipped with a rear motor of 240 kW (325 hp) for a torque of 420 Nm, this model was then credited with 5.6 s for achieving 0 to 100 km / h, before spinning towards the maximum speed of 225 kph. Impressive and unusual figures for an electric sedan in an entry-level version.
It is necessary to seek in the higher configurations, with integral motricity, and / or sports to be able to hope to spin at more than 200 km / h, as it is authorized on sections of the German motorway network. Thus the Kia EV6 but only in the GT configuration, Audi e-tron, Porsche Taycan, Ford Mustang Mach-E GT, Mercedes EQS, BMW iX, etc.
Several attempts
Before fully pressing the mushroom, a few small adjustments need to be made. Let’s ditch the Comfort driving mode and choose Sport for steering sensitivity. During the various attempts made by Max Freyss, the real limits were mainly set by the traffic encountered on the motorway.
Very quickly, the 0 to 100 km/h could be timed: 5.75 s, a result very close to the 5.6 s displayed by the American manufacturer. We were then quickly able to validate the maximum speed of 225 km/h. The figures are even mounted up to 228 km / h on the clock.
This pace could only be maintained for too short a time, during which a consumption peak was observed at around 55 kWh/100 km. The energy capacity of the Model 3 SR+ 2021 pack has been estimated at around 55 kWh precisely, facilitating the calculation. Thus, after a full recharge, the autonomy on paper would be of the order of 100 km under these conditions.
Not one Autobahn cruiser
La Tesla Model 3 SR+ 2021 « is not an ‘Autobahn cruiser’ », explains Max Freyss. The time during which it was able to hold above 225 km / h was too short to deduce a strict average consumption at stabilized speed for several tens of minutes. The call for power is very substantial to reach top speed.
In common use, the 40 kWh/100 instantaneous are already quickly exceeded on acceleration, for a few seconds, with many electric cars. During the tests of our videographer, an equally important need for energy was necessary to fight against the resistance of the air. By adding a margin of safety to reach a fast terminal that works, the 100 km could probably not be traveled at such high speed.
If it were also necessary to count with slowdowns and reminders, the autonomy would be even less. And all this, without even mentioning the recharging mesh necessary in order to make such chip jumps from one station to another. In short, Max Freyss demonstrated by the extreme how driving at very high speeds in an electric car is absurd and counterproductive.
24.9 seconds to reach 200 km/h
The density of traffic did not allow timing a time to go from 0 to 225 km / h with the Tesla Model 3 SR + 2021. On the other hand, the 0-200 km / h was achieved in 24.9 s. And all the elements are there to fairly reliably extrapolate the time needed to reach maximum speed.
At 3:09 minutes on the video, we notice that it took this car about 11 seconds to go from 200 to 225 km/h. A quick calculation would therefore give us around 36 s to perform the 0 to 225 km/h. An approximate result, but which should be quite close to a real observation under the same weather conditions. And this, because the acceleration has been pushed to the level of approximately 150 km/h.
For comparison, the 165-200 km/h was obtained, after relaunch, in about 9 seconds (from 3:01 on the video) and in 10 seconds in continuous acceleration (from 5:33). This delta, of the order of a second barely, confirms the consistency of 36 s to fly from 0 to 225 km/h.
The pleasure of accelerating in an electric car
Fine timing or extrapolated calculations, Max Freyss deduces from his tests that it is in the 0-100 km/h range ” that we can really exploit the full potential of the electric car and have fun with such accelerations “. With its test from 0 to 200 km / h, completed in 24.9 s, we notice a shortness of breath in the powertrain.
« This is where we begin to see the limits of electric: it is very efficient in acceleration, but when it comes to reaching high speeds, this is where it struggles. “, he explains. At this stage, a thermal model with a sporty character may be more comfortable.
« Driving at maximum speed with an electric car clearly has no point, especially in such an extreme case where it exceeds 200 km/h », concludes our videographer-editor.
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