Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk claims that a Model S P100D could travel a distance of over 1,000 kilometers (~621 miles) if driven efficiently on a single charge as long as it had the right tires. Musk's assertion was made after he retweeted a post by Electrek featuring a link to an article about a new Model S hypermiling record.

For the unfamiliar, hypermiling is done to test just how far a vehicle can go on a single tank of fuel — or, in the case of electric vehicles, a single charge — when driven to maximize efficiency.

In the article, a hypermiling duo from Belgium drove a Model S P100D — currently the fastest Tesla car available — in a 26-km (16-mile) closed loop for nearly 24 hours. Traveling at speeds of 40 km/h (24mph), they were able to run the car for 901.2 km (roughly 560 miles) on a single charge.

The previous record was set by Casey Spencer, who drove a Model S 85D ~885 kilometers (550.3 miles) on one charge. The Model SP100D has a higher energy capacity, which accounts for Musk's confidence that it could go even farther under ideal conditions.

While the average driver won't be operating their Tesla under hypermiling conditions, the significance of this new record is clear: Tesla's EVs are now more efficient than ever before. That's a plus for anyone considering an electric car, as a primary obstacle to adoption has been concerns about limited range, and the more EVs we can get on the roads, the fewer of their fossil fuel-powered counterparts will be contributing to carbon emissions.


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