A Tesla Model S In The Right Hands Is An EV Drift Monster

You might not know it to look at it, but the Tesla Model S is actually capable of sustaining a pretty insane drift. Yes, it’s a four-door sedan. And yes, it’s electric. Actually, that last bit might be its biggest strong point. 

Electric cars are usually not seen as performance machines. They’re often labelled as boring; a car for people who aren’t concerned about fun. That’s all wrong – or at least it’s a perception that’s changing quickly. At the forefront of that shift is Tesla and its Model S (especially in its P85D guise), a car fully electric vehicle that packs its eco pretentions in a sleek and swooping body that packs performance that can worry most supercars.

The answer lies in torque, and electric motors deliver a lot of it and from anywhere in the rev range. Press the accelerator pedal, and you’ll have instant power.

This characteristic is best demonstrated here by 2001 D1 GP champion Nobuteru Taniguchi as he slithers a Model S for a drift event in Odaiba, Japan. What he’s able to do is pretty impressive not only for an electric car, but any car that hasn’t been modified in any way to drift. He fails to catch the slide a couple of times, nothing dramatic, but attributes that to the steering rack – forgivably - not being quick enough. He did come away impressed by how capable the car was, though.