A few weeks back at the opening of a Tesla Motors service center in Munich, Elon Musk told a room full of fans and journalists that Tesla would offer a special tuning package for high-speed Model S driving.
It makes a lot of sense: Sections of Germany’s Autobahn network are among the few roads on Earth with no speed limit. And drivers really do make use of those sections.
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The answer is a fairly comfortable 212 kilometers per hour–or 132 mph in old money. Tesla itself quotes a top speed of 130 mph for the Model S Performance (125 for non-Performance 85 kWh cars), so it’s clear to see that the car will do so when given a free rein.
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More impressive still is how the Model S gets to that speed. Starting from around 60 mph, the car takes just five seconds or so to reach 100 mph. The rate of acceleration only really slows as the car passes 200 km/h, or 124 mph.
That replicates the behavior we saw in a Model S video earlier this year–though Martin’s early-morning run on a section of de-restricted Autobahn near Berlin was perhaps a little more legal than the first video, shot in the U.S.
Naturally, the battery won’t last the EPA’s 265 miles at these sort of speeds, but that probably won’t worry German owners–Musk promised a full network of Supercharger quick-charge stations over the next few years.
Those drivers will also get a faster charge than they do elsewhere, thanks to a higher 135 kW output. Musk believes Germany will become Tesla’s third-largest market–after the U.S. and China.
Whatever your take on top speed runs on public roads, one thing is for sure–the Model S makes going quickly seem almost relaxing.
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This story originally appeared on Green Car Reports. Copyright 2013
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