Confirmed: Tesla steals Nürburgring EV record with 7min 30sec lap
Words: Matthew Hansen
Tesla’s lengthy war with Porsche over claiming the Nürburgring Nordschleife’s record for fastest mass produced electric car appears to have finally been run and won, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirming today that the American firm has beaten Porsche in its own backyard.
Musk has reported on Twitter that the new Tesla Model S Plaid has lapped the Green Hell in a very brisk 7:30.909 on the 20.6km version of the circuit, and a 7:35.579 on the longer 20.8km version of the circuit.
These times pip the Porsche Taycan Turbo S’ 7:42.3 on the 20.6km lap from 2019. Musk says that Tesla isn’t done yet, either, with plans to take the Plaid back to the ‘Ring with a few aftermarket tweaks (including carbon-ceramic brakes and track tyres) for giggles.
For the record, Musk claims that the Plaid used in the new record lap was completely stock.
In fact, barring the times he shared on Twitter and a subsequent Tweet explaining the above, that’s all that Tesla has shared. No on-board footage of the lap, no slickly cut video montage paired to dramatic music. A stark contrast to the Taycan lap record reveal two years ago.
The competition between Porsche and Tesla at the Nürburgring was fierce. And, for a while, the two brands were testing their combatants at the illustrious track at the same time. It was during this time that Tesla revealed plans to build the Plaid. It had planned to build an even quicker version called the Plaid+, but this plan was eventually benched.
While the Model S Plaid is now the king of the EVs at the Nürburgring (for the moment, anyway), it’s not quite the quickest four-door sedan outright. This honour goes to the Jaguar XE SV Project 8, with its 7:18.361. The Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S is also a frontrunner, having set a 7:23.009.
The fastest electric car to lap the Nurburging period, meanwhile, is the Volkswagen ID.R race car, which has a 6:05.336 attached to its name. The Nio EP9 is, technically speaking, the quickest electric production car to ever lap the Nurburgring, having set a 6:45.90. But, only a handful of EP9s were ever built.
