Tesla will have to work harder now if it wants to retain any of its world records, as a Japanese electric street-legal supercar has left Tesla's electric supercar in the dust after it beat the company's record.
The said record was for the fastest acceleration for an electric supercar, where Tesla's Model S remained king for quite a considerable length of time. Japanese car manufacturer Aspark took the honors of breaking Tesla's record for acceleration when its very own Aspark Owl did 0 to 60 miles an hour just below 1.9 seconds. In addition to beating Tesla's Model S, the Owl also defeated the acceleration of some of the most powerful traditional gas supercars like the $3 million Bugatti Chiron and the Lamborghini Aventador.
By comparison, Tesla's Model S came in second only to the Bugatti Chiron, clocking in at 0 to 60mph in just 2.5 seconds, while the Chiron can do it in just 2.3 seconds. This makes the Owl the current crown holder for the fastest acceleration in the electric automobile world right now, perhaps even the gas automobile department.
It is worth noting that other sources report different results in terms of how fast the Owl achieved the acceleration due to the number of tests conducted, but regardless, the Owl still tops the Model S. Top Gear, a well known international authority in automotive technology and performance also commented on the Owl's accomplishment, calling the electric supercar ridiculous in terms of capabilities.
Apparently, the Owl owes its beastly and efficient performance to supercapacitors instead of batteries, while the testing also shows that the tires used were not street-legal but racing tires. This means that the materials used for testing would likely not be representative of the final model, so it is not clear yet how the Owl would perform against the Model S realistically and in normal consumer conditions.
Of course, this sort of performance in a vehicle also does not come cheap. The Aspark Owl is reported to cost as much as $4 million for those interested.
