The race for the fastest electric vehicle has been heating up lately, with both Lucid Motors and Tesla sending their prototype tri-motor sedans to Laguna Seca in an attempt to set a record lap time.
When CEO Elon Musk announced the new Plaid Model S at the company’s Battery Day event last week, it was revealed driver Sebastien Vittel had shaved nearly five seconds off the record set in 2019, completing the lap in 1:30.3.
This news came just days after our friends at The Kilowatts filmed Lucid’s tri-motor prototype clocking an unofficial time of about 1:33.
Lucid has now officially released their lap time from that day, and it was even faster than expected, but not quite enough to beat Vittel’s record lap.
In setting a personal best lap time of 1:31.3, the Lucid Air missed out on the Plaid Model S record by just one second.
Comparing the two in-car videos, it shows the Lucid Air reaching a top speed of 145mph (234km/h) as it heads toward the start/finish line. The Model S was able to just beat that by getting up to 147mph (236km/h).
Tesla was able to improve the top speed of the Plaid Model S at Laguna Seca by 18mph (29km/h) compared to last year! @elonmusk you are a mad man! pic.twitter.com/O1I8RcSONy
— Drive Tesla 🇨🇦 🔋 (@DriveTeslaca) September 23, 2020
With both Tesla and Lucid expected to make changes to their vehicles before their respective releases, these times will undoubtedly get even lower. Musk expects with the some tweaks, the Plaid Model S could shave another 3 seconds off their already impressive time.
We attempted to create a side-by-side video to show off the two laps, but it appears Lucid has edited the recording and removed part of the run. The missing pieces first appear around turn 3, and then at several other spots when the camera view changes to outside of the vehicle.
For reference, here is the in-car video from inside the Plaid Tesla Model S.
