Tesla Launches the Ludicrous Plus Mode to battle the Faraday

Tesla has been making a few minor modifications to the Model S P100D cars over the air waves, making them even faster, even though they are already the world’s fastest pure electric cars. The new ‘Ludicrous Plus’ mode, as it is known, will allow the Tesla S P100D to go from standing to 100kph in a mere 2.34 seconds, which is probably quick enough to tear the skin off your face, and puts it just behind the Porsche 918, which can do it in 2.3 seconds.

Many of us think that EV’s are all about being green and wearing hemp trousers as we sip our camomile tea and potter about our daily business in vehicles that very much lack excitement. So why is it that Elon Musk’s Tesla is so keen to provide a five-seater all-wheel vehicle that can probably get the pulse racing of any professional racing driver.

The answer is probably as simple as the competition that has been heating up from Faraday (see Mysterious Chinese Billionaire targets Tesla) who has now launched its very own Tesla-rivalling semi-autonomous car that can reach 100kph in a mere 2.39 seconds, which before Tesla’s release was 2.5 seconds. So is this boys peeing against the wall? In some ways, absolutely. The FF91, as it is known (see picture), is all about performance and speed (a claimed 320kph) and a little about range, which is claimed to be 770 kilometres, assuming you stick to 88kph that is.

The launch of the Faraday was at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas and not some traditional car show, which of course would indicate that the new kid on the block, Faraday, wants to position its offering more as a lifestyle choice than a mere car. Richard Kim, VP for Design, Nick Simpson, VP of Research and YT Jia, CEO, all took the stage bedecked in the new uniform for tech execs of jeans and T-shirts. And all for a while had somewhat red faces as the car refused to budge when it was commanded to demo the autonomous park mode.

Boys, buy some shirts; it's okay to look smart!