Tesla Model S Plaid Drags Model 3 Highland Then Upgrades to a Surprise 1,248-HP Contender

For years, Tesla represented the pinnacle of EV innovation and technology. They recently culminated their work via the 1,020-horsepower Model S Plaid and Model X Plaid that were soon undefeated by anything in series production – for a while. Of course, the rivals followed suit and created stuff like the 1,025-horsepower 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 special edition or the 1,234-horsepower Lucid Air Sapphire. However, most recently, the Plaid supremacy has been threatened from a different direction – China. To see if the community has reasons to fear, the guys from Enhance decided to put a Tesla Model S Plaid through its paces.

Sitting on an unprepped surface somewhere in Europe, the mighty EV will fight off the invaders in an American manner – over the distance of a quarter of a mile. To put its performance into the proper perspective, the Enhance daily driver was first called into action – a 2024 Tesla Model 3 Standard Range which has a zero to 62 mph (100 kph) sprint time of 5.6 seconds. That's a lot better than many ICE-powered machines, by the way.

However, the Model 3 couldn't hold a candle next to the Tesla Model S Plaid, and there were a few buses between them by the time they finished the inaugural race. Now it's time to meet the contender – China's Zeekr 001 FR, a quirky five-door shooting brake that has a quad-motor configuration and 1,265 PS or 1,248 horsepower. If you're wondering what's that, FR stands for Future Road, and it's the limited performance edition of the Zeekr 001 that was announced late last year.

By the way, if you're wondering what a Zeekr is, this Chinese brand is an off-shoot of Geely Automotive, a new endeavor just like Lynk & Co or Polestar, for example. Their first electric vehicle is the aptly named Zeekr 001, a model released in China in late 2021 and also introduced to Europe in 2023, just prior to the new and highly controversial import tariffs.

The aspiring brand obviously targeted Tesla and Lucid with its new Zeekr 001 FR special edition, which uses an 800V architecture with a 100 kWh CATL Qilin battery and has track-specification brakes and suspension plus features like the 'tank turn' due to its quad-engine configuration. Anyway, they were only interested in sending it straight down the line on this occasion, and sure enough, the first race showed the unexpected contender not only could hold its ground against the Tesla Model S Plaid but also beat it down the quarter mile.

Just to be sure, they re-ran the pass a second time with the Tesla battery at optimal temperature, and don't jump to claim they were biased because the first run was easily won by the Model S because the Zeekr didn't even start – everything was in Chinese, and they failed to engage launch mode. So, the third time was the charm, and the 001 FR posted a 9.71s quarter-mile time, whereas the Tesla Model S Plaid won the battle with a 9.5s pass. All in all, they were both quite impressive on an unprepped surface, right?