Tesla Model 3 on the Dyno Puts Down Big Torque Numbers!

 

For all their insane technology, which obviously drives up the cost of any vehicle, Tesla has done a great job keeping the common man in mind when it comes to their Model 3. Starting at a reasonable $35,000, the Model 3 is much more affordable than its more powerful and more feature-laden offerings. That’s not to say the 3 is underpowered or stripped down, it certainly comes with plenty of bells and whistles.

When it comes to power, the 3 is obviously not going to put down the kind of numbers the P85D and P100D do, but Brooks from Drag Times wanted to find out for sure exactly how much power and torque the Model 3 does make, so he decided to strap it to the dyno and find out. Of course, as we’ve seen, dynoing a Tesla is no walk in the park thanks to the host of sensors and triggers that cause the cars to think something is wrong when the rear tires spin and the front doesn’t. Luckily Brooks hit up the Tesla forums and found a quick fix that let the car run as expected on the dyno, and I have to say for an car that can be bought like sits – this one had the upgraded battery over the base model – for $50,000, it made some impressive numbers, cranking out 281 wheel horsepower and a neck-snapping 552 ft/lbs or torque.

I’m curious as to how much variance there is on these cars, so I want you guys to help me out with that by finding some other dyno video or charts from Model 3’s elsewhere so we can compare them. Brooks mentioned at the beginning of this video that there was another Model 3 that made “suspect” numbers, so that’s piqued my interest in just how consistent these cars are on an individual car perspective. I assume the Model 3 has the same selectable tunes as the others, so perhaps the other one was on a different tune than the one in the video, since that isn’t mentioned.