Have you seen last night’s episode of Top Gear? It’s the second in the 27th series, welcoming Freddie Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness as the replacements for Joey from Friends. A segment of the episode was dedicated to the Model 3, namely a Performance and how the electric sedan from Fremont stacks up against internal combustion.
Chris Harris decided to test the Model 3 Performance against the likes of the BMW M3. And Mercedes-AMG C 63 S. And Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio. Two of the competitors develop more than 500 horsepower at the crankshaft from up to eight cylinders and a twin-turbo setup. The thing is, the trump card of an electric vehicle over internal combustion is torque.
As a rule of thumb, torque gives you acceleration and horsepower gives you top speed. With these in mind, does it come as a surprise the dual-motor Tesla is ridiculously quick off the line? But towards the end of the drag race, the Mercedes-AMG passed the Model 3 Performance thanks to the eight-cylinder fury under the hood.
An “AK-47 disguised as a butter knife” is how Harris describes the Model 3 Performance, but as far as quarter-mile runs are concerned, there is much that can be improved. Build quality is another problem for Tesla, along with dwindling demand in the Old Continent.
Renault Zoe took the crown for EV sales in May 2019 while the Model 3 dropped from 15,755 units in March to 2,820. Everyone in the industry is interested in electrification, but as far as the customer is concerned, the take-up rate for EVs cannot match the perks of internal combustion.
In addition to range anxiety, electric vehicles also happen to be quite expensive in comparison to in-segment rivals that run on dinosaur juice. Take the aforementioned Zoe as a prime example, priced at 23,700 euros in France compared to 17,800 euros for the Clio.
What about the Model 3? Looking at the German configurator for the most affordable Tesla out there, the Standard Range Plus with rear-wheel drive is 45,480 euros before savings while the BMW 3 Series starts at 37,850 euros for the 318d with the manual transmission.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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