Three alternatives to the Tesla Model S Plaid for the same price

The figures of the Tesla Model S Plaid are truly impressive: 1,020 CV of power, 2.1 seconds to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h, a top speed of over 320 km/h, 600 km of WLTP range… They really don’t seem like the figures of a 5-metre-long saloon; they’re more like what you’d expect to find on the technical specifications sheet of a sports car. But there they are.

And for now, the top of the Model S range has no equivalent in the electric car segment. Now that Tesla has announced the arrival and prices of the Tesla Model S Plaid in our market, where it can be purchased for 140,000 euros, we have set ourselves the exercise of finding three alternatives within the same budget.

The truth is that, at this price, a “temptation” would be to recommend a Audi RS 6 Avant. No other car combines high performance, representative capability, sporty handling and everyday versatility better. But in a way it would be cheating…

If we’re talking about Tesla, the imperative is to look for alternatives with electric propulsion. And for the 140,000 euros that the Model S Plaid costs, these are the models we would recommend if you’re looking for a car…

More sporty: Porsche Taycan GTS… or a Taycan GTS Sport Turismo

As I already mentioned in the road test of the Taycan GTS Sport Turismo, I particularly favour the added practicality of this body variant, although the Taycan GTS “saloon” is also there. It isn’t as powerful as the Model S Plaid; it “only” delivers 600 CV. On paper, it also falls short in performance: a top speed limited to 250 km/h and 0 to 100 km/h acceleration in 3.7 seconds.

But in practice, the Model S would only outperform the Taycan GTS when it comes to straight-line acceleration… and range. When it comes to steering feel and sensations beyond pure acceleration, the Taycan GTS pulls far ahead of the Model S, much more than the Tesla can manage against Porsche when travelling comfortably on the motorway.

More luxurious: BMW i7 xDrive60

It was bound to happen… As soon as the German premium brands got their act together, they were going to steal the show from Tesla. And this is another clear example. For what a Model S Plaid costs, you get a BMW i7 xDrive60, the electric version of an icon among high-end luxury saloons, the BMW 7 Series. Finish, interior presentation, quality, premium feel… Whichever way you look at it, the BMW i7 is much more of a car. Some say size doesn’t matter, but in addition, no other electric saloon on the market reaches 5.4 metres in length.

It’s true that it doesn’t accelerate like a Tesla, and it has almost half the power, 544 CV. But its under-5-second time to reach 100 km/h from a standstill is still a figure that many high-performance sports coupés with combustion engines would be proud of. As for range, the i7 stands out with its 625 km WLTP homologated. The days when Tesla dominated every ranking of electric cars with the longest range are becoming a distant memory.

Also as a clearly more luxurious and refined alternative to the Tesla Model S Plaid, we could include here the new Mercedes-Benz EQS, which would be the electric Mercedes S-Class. The version comparable to the Tesla in price — about 8,000 euros more — would be the EQS 580 4MATIC, with 523 CV, 670 km of range and first-class technology, with innovations such as the 77-inch Head-up Display, the MBUX Hyperscreen or the Drive Pilot level 3 autonomous driving assistant.

More sporty and more luxurious: Audi RS e-tron GT

It exceeds the budget by almost 6,000 euros, but the Audi RS e-tron GT strikes me as one of the best alternatives to the Tesla Model S Plaid. It masterfully combines the sporty feel of the Taycan with the exquisite finish you find in the BMW i7 and the refinement of a Mercedes EQS.

For all these reasons, the RS e-tron GT is probably the electric car that currently best combines exquisite comfort with dynamic behaviour that makes it a tremendously fast saloon… even on a circuit.

I’ll just add one thing: as I’ve already mentioned here on the occasion of the circuit test of the Audi RS range, the RS e-tron GT lets you follow in the wake of a full Audi RS 6 Avant with hardly any effort. It’s true that it does so “in its own way”, taking advantage of its tremendous acceleration out of corners, without quite conveying the feeling of driving an almost race-bred car that you get at the wheel of the RS 6.

But even that alone is quite something. As for its figures, although it may seem small next to the Tesla: 646 CV and 0 to 100 km/h in 3.3 seconds. Where the RS e-tron GT falls behind is range: it claims 465 km on a single battery charge.