There’s no shortage of upstart automakers that are looking to take Tesla down a peg or two. The latest to do is Drako, a neophyte automaker that has spent the last few years developing its electric supercar, the GTE. Its development has been going on smoothly, at least if you judge it by this video the automaker just released featuring the GTE and, surprise, surprise, the Tesla Model S P100D.
It’s a classic benchmark test from an automaker looking to make a name for itself at the expense of a segment titan. Does the GTE have the goods to take down the Model S P100D? Let’s find out.
Clearly, Drako, which was founded by Barracuda Networks CEO Dean Drako, wouldn’t have released this video had the Tesla Model S P100D spanked the Drako GTE electric supercar in their drag race.
Make no mistake, it’s not a bad thing altogether. The Tesla Model S P100D, even this specific model that supposedly has miles under its belt, remains one of the fastest and most powerful cars in the world.
Even if it’s weathered compared to the new GTE, the Model S P100D makes for an ideal benchmark, in part because of its stature in the industry. If there’s one car that a startup automaker measures its new all-electric product against, it’s the Model S P100D. That’s a testament to the capabilities of the Tesla more than it is an indictment born from the results of the race.
So, what did we learn about the Drako GTE after this benchmark? We learned that it’s fast, which it’s supposed to be considering that, according to Drako, it’s powered by four permanent magnet hybrid synchronous motors — it’s the same setup you’ll see in a model like the Rimac C_Two — that can produce a staggering 1,200 horsepower. It also boasts a 90-kWh battery pack — bigger than the one Lotus uses in the Evija — that helps juice up the electric motors.
Drako hasn’t said how much range the battery pack has, but it’s not unreasonable to imagine that the GTE can run almost 300 miles on a single charge. On the count of performance, the GTE can hit a top speed of 206 mph so, if for nothing else, Drako’s electric supercar has the chops to compete against some of the fastest production cars in the world. The Tesla Model S P100D is among these cars, and, at least in the case of this benchmark test, the Drako GTE more than held its own against the standard-bearer of the electric performance car segment.
Hopefully, we get to see and hear more from Drako in the coming months. It does look like the automaker has something special in its hands and it’d be really cool to see it hit the streets as a full-fledged production model, even if Drako is capping production to just 25 units with each priced at $1.25 million.