Tesla Model 3 EV Will Of Course Receive Pavement-Slaying Ludicrous Mode Option
Given that that upcoming $35,000 Model 3 will have less powerful electric motors and smaller battery packs than its pricier big brother, the standard vehicle will hit 60 mph in less than six seconds. This is compared to 5.2 seconds, 4.2 seconds, and 3.1 seconds for the Model S 70D, 90D and P90D (without Ludicrous Mode) respectively.
However, according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk you can count on the Model 3 becoming a lot faster off the line with its own version of Ludicrous Mode:
@vigneshraju of course
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 30, 2016
We could see a dual-motor Model 3 with Ludicrous Mode enabled hitting 60 mph in less than 5 seconds and perhaps inch ever so close to 4 seconds. However, we seriously doubt that Tesla would allow its lowly Model 3 -- which is expected to have an average transaction price of around of $42,000 — perform better than its pricier Model S ($76,500 base) and Model X ($83,000 base) siblings.
With that being said, not everyone is impressed with Ludicrous Mode. Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer ripped into the performance feature last year when touting the company’s upcoming 200-mile all-electric Rapide sedan. “We don’t do Ludicrous because Ludicrous speed is stupid,” said Palmer. “I think that the fact that you could drive a few laps of a decent race course or race it around the Nordschleife is much more interesting than doing 500 meters in Ludicrous mode.”
Tesla has come under fire more recently from another competitor: Volvo. Trent Victor, Volvo’s senior technical leader for crash avoidance, lambasted Tesla Autopilot software, saying that "It gives you the impression that it's doing more than it is” and “is more of an unsupervised wannabe."
