Taiwanese Automaker Beats Up on Tesla Roadster

Tesla’s had it rough lately, what with the latest Autopilot crash, low Model 3 production numbers, and Moody’s downgrading its credit rating. Then, a software company out of Japan makes the OWL, an electric hypercar that accelerates as quickly as Tesla claims the new Roadster will. Now, we have a Taiwanese automaker that claims it’s built an even quicker car.

You’ve probably never heard of Xing, but it’s created this interesting-looking off-road electric car, called the Miss R. The design is supposed to be inspired by rally racers. Okay.

More impressive is the battery pack, which supposedly kicks out a megawatt of electricity. In car terms, that’s about 1,340 horsepower. Not shabby. That feeds four 350-volt electric motors – one for each wheel. Yes, that means it’s all-wheel-drive.

This setup is supposedly good for 0-62 mph in 1.8 seconds. That’s 0.01 seconds quicker than what Tesla says the Roadster will do the same run. Oh, and that car will totally come, just like 5,000 Model 3s were going to be rolling off production lines in December. The Miss R can do 0-125 mph in 5.1 seconds.

With hard driving, this car will drain the 52-kWh lithium-ion battery pack in about five minutes. In other words, the vehicle is made for racing, not driving on the road.

Just about as strange is an all-electric light-duty commercial truck Xing is developing, which is called Mr. T.