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Is the Tesla Model S Plaid too quick?

That'south the question I've been asking, which seems diametrically opposed to my consummate and utter addiction to all things fast and exhilarating.

Never was the sense of pure unadulterated speed rammed home more graphically than when I climbed into a Bugatti Veyron during 2008 in France, and proceeded to launch the xvi-cylinder, quad-turbo monster from a standing offset.

At total tilt it was satisfyingly terrifying, the intersection of momentary brain fade and thou-force-induced nausea completely overwhelming my body. I believed there was a existent possibility I was almost to dice as the speedo nudged 360km/h.

Bugatti's official merits for the zero to 100km/h sprint was a staggering 2.46 seconds. To put that in context it's 0.14 seconds quicker than a Formula 1 machine could handle the same sprint.

So what if I told you lot you could order a Tesla Model S Plaid five-door liftback that can rocket (in the truest sense of the word) from 0-100km/h in a mind-extraordinary two.ane seconds… and it's yours from but over $200,000 on the road.

That's all it takes to arm yourself with a family car that can rush any supercar and almost all the hypercars nosotros know of in a straight-line.

If you'd rather an SUV, Tesla has the Model X Plaid for similar money which, despite its heft, has a claimed sprint time of but ii.half dozen seconds.

That happens to lucifer the purpose-built and track-focused Lamborghini Huracan Performante in a directly line.

They're both out of reach for nearly, but for less than $100,000 you can purchase a Model 3 Performance, effectively a 5-door sedan capable of going from standstill to 100km/h in 3.3 seconds.

That'southward a tenth quicker than the monstrous Mercedes-Benz E63 Southward AMG, a twin-turbo sedan making 450kW of power and 850Nm of torque.

It blows my mind that anyone with a driver's licence tin can buy one of these vehicles and get behind the wheel on public roads without so much as a defensive driving course nether their belt.

With governments around the world calling for lower speed limits and installing more speed cameras than I've had hot dinners – including places like Deutschland, legal speed's terminal frontier – it begs the question; are everyday family cars getting too fast?

There'south e'er going to be a place for purpose-built sports cars and technical showcases that can annihilate the 100km/h sprint, but why do applied sedans need to advance like they've fallen off a cliff?

Automobile manufacturers, led by Tesla, accept crossed the line in an obsessive quest for ability and speed to the bespeak it'due south getting dangerous for drivers, and blatantly irresponsible when y'all consider the consequences should things go wrong.

In countries like Commonwealth of australia where the maximum legal speed is 110km/h, you've got to ask why nosotros demand family cars designed for the commute to outgun supercars?

Of course, the power wars are nothing new. High german carmakers have been duking information technology out to see which can brand their G, AMG, and RS cars fastest for decades.

But the proper performance cars accept always been split up from the shopping trolleys and airport taxis. A garden-variety 5 Series is faster than its predecessors, simply it also accelerates in a way that could loosely exist divers equally 'normal'.

And sure, the democratisation of operation is a good thing if you want to drive everywhere like your pants are on fire, merely non anybody does.

If you're an elderly driver with a bad hearing and sore feet that sort of acceleration isn't just unnecessary, it's unsafe.

Tesla isn't lone here. The BYD Han will dispatch the 100km/h sprint in 3.four seconds, and the lesser-rung Lucid Air takes only 3.2 seconds.

That's terrifyingly rapid, especially in the hands of someone non used to such ferocious step and the associated forces.

In the netherlands, the ferocious performance on offer in even low- and mid-range Tesla cars is already proving dangerous for owners' hip pockets.

According to Dutch News, the Netherlands national statistics function reported 75 per cent of the nation's 9000 registered Tesla owners were fined for speeding in 2018. No other brand had such a high percentage of constabulary breakers.

We're non saying Tesla owners are doing this deliberately of course, just that it's really easy to accidentally do the wrong thing with instant, biggy torque at your disposal all the time.

For now these cars are the preserve of early on adopters and enthusiasts, only that won't exist the instance forever – and the accident that happens when an unsuspecting driver mats the wrong pedal in one of these supposedly sensible, practical cars is going to exist biblical.

Should Tesla and its electric rivals be limiting their garden-variety vehicles so we all might feel safer?

I don't know what the answer is, merely a world where family-friendly sedans can go from 0-100km/h in less fourth dimension than it takes a Formula 1 car feels out of whack to me.