Tesla Announces Quickest Electric Car

George Putic, VOA News
24 August 2016 (6:00PM)

What’s the fastest accelerating car in the world that you can buy without a special order and for a relatively affordable price compared to other high performance cars?

Instead of a roaring, super-charged, high-octane-gasoline guzzler and air polluter it is an all-wheel drive electric car that can reach 96.5 kilometers an hour in just 2.5 seconds. Its two electric motors are almost silent and its wheels do not slip.

Founder and CEO of Tesla Motors Elon Musk Tuesday unveiled the new four-door sedan Tesla Model S P100D with an improved 100 kilowatt-per-hour battery that also makes it the longest range electric car. Fully charged, it can run for over 600 kilometers.

The same battery is now available in Tesla’s Model X SUV, which accelerates slightly slower – only 2.9 seconds to 96.5 kilometers an hour. That is also a record for SUVs together with its improved range of 542 kilometers.

Both models can be recharged for free at the ever-expanding network of Tesla’s Supercharger stations.

The new Model S starts at $134,500 while the cheapest of its competitors, Porsche 918 Spyder starts at $845,000.

According to Musk, the improvement comes not from the battery technology but from new electronic circuits that make better use of their charge.

For the first few months, Tesla Motors will be able to manufacture about 200 of the new models weekly.

Check out a photo of the new car on Tesla’s site.