How fast is the Tesla Model S Plaid from 0-60 mph? According to Tesla, the car accomplishes that feat in 1.99 seconds. This is incredibly impressive and makes the car one of the fastest accelerating production cars on the market.

However, as this acceleration test video by ICSI shows, your experience may be different. In this test, the 0-60 acceleration was 2.59 seconds. This is more than 0.5 seconds slower than Tesla promises. So what is the problem?

Well, there are many reasons for this discrepancy, but the main one is that Tesla does not measure rollout as part of the 0-60 timing. Essentially, this means that Tesla is operating under drag racing rules, where the clock does not start until the wheel has made one revolution.

In other words, it means that before the clock starts moving, the car has moved about a foot and has already started accelerating; this was not the case in the ICSI speed test, and the clock started when the car started moving.

Environmental factors can also affect acceleration, including the surface on which you are driving and the tires you are using. Regular street tires on public roads are not as fast as specially prepared, dedicated tires running on a drag strip.

According to Motor Trend, Tesla itself admits that the Model S Plaid needs to be in a special "drag strip mode" to reach peak acceleration. This is not as simple as pressing a button, but requires waiting 8 to 15 minutes for the battery to reach optimum temperature and the electric motor to cool.

It appears that ICSI went through the motions of activating the drag strip mode, otherwise the times would have been significantly slower. In addition, there were three people in the car, which would have increased the weight and slightly reduced the speed.

Still, as the video above shows, it is clear that the Model S Plaid is not inferior and seems to reach 60 mph in no time at all. After all, the 0.6 second difference between ICSI's time and Tesla's official time is not significant.

It makes a big difference on the spec sheet and during races, but not in real-world driving. In addition, you are still going 60 mph in less than 3 seconds, which, as any roller coaster enthusiast will tell you, is a pretty exhilarating experience.