Watch Tesla Model S Plaid Race Harley-Davidson LiveWire Electric Bike

Place your bets, does the electric car or electric motorcycle win this epic EV race?

Steven Loveday

By: Steven Loveday

Jan 5, 2022 at 11:30am ET

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We've seen the world's quickest production car – the all-electric Tesla Model S Plaid – face off against a host of interesting rivals, from quick EVs to gas-powered legends, hybrid hypercars, and some of the quickest motorcycles on the market. However, this may be the first time we've seen the new Model S compete with the Harley-Davidson LiveWire electric motorcycle.

Why pit the Model S Plaid against a bike? At this point, we'd love to see the Plaid compete against as many crazy rivals as possible, not only to prove that electric cars are king, but also to see if there are any competitors that can actually beat it.

According to Tesla, the Model S Plaid can pull off a zero-to-60-mph sprint in as little as 1.99 seconds. It cranks out 1,020 horsepower and has a top speed of 200 mph, though that top speed requires a software update that hasn't yet happened. However, Tesla did just initiate a software update that cranks that top speed up to a reported 175 mph from a previous 163 mph. Based on a number of reports, the update came quietly as part of the new Model S Plaid Track Mode feature.

The all-electric LiveWire can hit 60 mph from a standstill in three seconds, according to Harley-Davidson. Adding an additional two seconds takes you to 80 mph. The owner of the bike featured in the video says he added a larger rear tire, which may or may not help in this particular racing situation.

The Plaid has proven it can tackle a quarter-mile pass in 9.234 seconds, though several folks have claimed to beat that time. In most cases we've seen, Plaid models with quicker quarter-mile times have likely been modified.

The LiveWire completes a quarter-mile run in about 11 seconds and an eighth-mile run in about seven seconds. It's important to note that this particular race is of the eighth-mile variety.

The Tesla Plaid Channel provided the following topics and timestamps for navigating the video:

What do you think?

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0:00 Intro
0:16 Harley-Davidson LiveWire Cycle!
0:43 Plaid vs Livewire
2:34 Timeslip?
4:23 Closing Comments
4:35 Preview of next Video!
5:05 More LiveWire Runs!

No spoilers here. Place your bets and then watch the short video to see which EV wins this unique battle. Once you've watched, leave us a comment below.

Source: Tesla Plaid Channel (YouTube)