When electric vehicles first came out, they were produced with one focus in mind: Get as many miles on a charge as possible. The first EVs were not particularly good looking and were not known for performance.
Fast forward to today and it's the complete opposite. Now electric cars look good to the eye — some more than others — and, boy, are they fast.
Take for example the Tesla Model S and Model X in "D" form. The standard vehicles were already fast enough so when you dump in another motor you get all-wheel drive and way, way more power. The AWD aids traction and you've just upped your instant torque by an assload.
This means that performance is on par with many of today's leading exotic vehicles. And, in many cases, the Teslas actually exceed supercar benchmarks.
So, we have to ask the question: Does SPEED trump ALL or does it still matter if a vehicle has a sweet engine note and the car looks KILLER?
While the Model X is a pretty gnarly piece of engineering, it definitely isn't a looker. The McLaren 650S, on the other hand, can do no wrong in any department. Let's get down to brass tacks, folks. Does speed kill? What say you?
In this video we race the all new Tesla Model X P90D with Ludicrous Mode vs the McLaren 650S Supercar down the 1/4 mile with and without launch control.