Electric are definitely quicker off the line when compared to a regular car that uses an internal combustion engine. We have seen several videos of electric cars competing with high performance cars in a drag race. Tesla which is one of the most popular electric car manufacturer in the world thought that it would be fun to make an electric car that can give several supercars and sports cars run for its money. They launched the Model S Plaid version which is the most powerful and fastest accelerating electric car in production. Here we have a video that show how the Tesla Model S performs against Suzuki Hayabusa and Kawasaki ZX-14R in a drag race.
The video has been shared by Edmunds on their YouTube channel. In this video, the presenter races the Tesla Model S Plaid against Suzuki Hayabusa and Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14R superbikes. The bikes were ridden by a professional drag race rider, while the presenter was inside the Tesla.
Also read: Suzuki Hayabusa vs Kawasaki Ninja ZX10R in a “superbike tug-of-war” (Video)
Before the race starts, the video shares technical specifications on the Model S Plaid. The Plaid is powered by three electric motors that sent power to all four wheels. The car generates 1,020 Ps. This makes Model S Plaid, the most powerful electric four door sedan in the world. The Suzuki Hayabusa is the all-new version which was launched recently. It is powered by a 1.3 litre inline 4 cylinder engine that generates 188 Ps. The Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14R is powered by a 1.4 litre inline 4 cylinder engine generating 208 Ps.
The Tesla Model S Plaid races with the Hayabusa first and the moves to the Ninja. The race was being conducted on a proper race track and both car and the bike were lined up at the start line. YouTube engages the Tesla into drag race mode for better performance. As soon as the race starts, Tesla moves off the line quickly and takes the lead. Suzuki Hayabusa also had a great start but, due to the cross winds, he had to control his throttle input to avoid from going out of control. Tesla maintained the lead and won the round.
In Tesla, wind is not that big of an issue as it has four wheels. The acceleration was instant and the biker was surprised to see that. Tesla won the second round as well. After second round, they went and did a drag race with rolling start. The race started at 40 mph and as soon as the Hayabusa rider crossed the start line, he accelerated hard to win the round. Tesla was right behind it and if the driver’s response was on point, Tesla would have won this round as well. This was proven in the next round with the rolling start where Tesla won.
After Suzuki Hayabusa, rider brought in the 2021 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14R. In comparison the Suzuki, ZX-14R was performing better and the gap between the car and the bike had also come down. Just like with Hayabusa, two rounds with normal start and two rounds with rolling. Kawasaki managed to win one round in the rolling start and all the other rounds were won by Tesla. The YouTuber does mention that as the Tesla was being driven in the drag race mode continuously, it felt like the performance had started becoming weaker.
