Tesla Roadster surprisingly wins 24-hour electric race

As part of the ecoGP series, they held the first 24 hours race with only electric cars, the 24 Hours of Oschersleben, and the winning car would surprise you: a Tesla Roadster.

30 electric cars driven by about 100 drivers set out to drive as many laps as possible over 24 hours on Dec. 1-2 at the Oschersleben track in Saxony-Anhalt.

e-Racing 365 reports that a Tesla Roadster driven by Hans-Friederich Wilhelm Neuss, Thomas Schmitt and Udo Weges ended up winning:

“They completed 495 laps over the 24-hour period, finishing nine laps clear of the runner-up team in a Hyundai Kona EV.”

The team in the Roadster beat electric cars from Renault, Hyundai, Kia, Smart, Nissan, Opel and BMW, as well as several other Tesla vehicles.

Rafael de Mestre, the event promoter, says that automakers could now aim to beat the records established at this new event:

“The respective best marks of the individual constructions will now be a motivating goal for the teams participating next year.”

Interestingly, Porsche recently said that it wants to push range per 24hr with charging as a new electric vehicle metric with the Taycan.

Electrek’s Take

That’s impressive since it’s about finding a balance between range optimization, speed, and charging time.

The original Roadster doesn’t even have fast-charging capability, which would be an incredible disadvantage in this race, but you can add the capability as a third-party aftermarket product.

I would assume that this particular Roadster got the upgrade because I don’t see how they could have pulled it off otherwise.

Either way, I’d like to know the details of the charging stops and average driving speed.

I think that there were some limitations when it comes to charging. For example, the Tesla Model S vehicles in the race would have won if they had access to a Supercharger.

Same thing for the Kona EV if it had access to a 100+ kW fast-charger.

Nonetheless, it’s an interesting event and it’s surprising that the Roadster, a vehicle that was introduced over a decade ago, won the contest.