Statement: ‘0-100 km/h in 10 seconds is fast enough’

You haven’t needed a supercar for years to reach a speed of 100 km/h from standstill in less than 5 seconds. A Ferrari 360 Modena – delivered until 2004 – stomped to 100 km / h in an impressive 4.5 seconds at the time, but nowadays even sub-toppers such as Audi S3 and BMW M135i come quite close. In fact, even electric models such as the MG Marvel R and Hongqi E-HS9 achieve such acceleration times. The electric car in particular has made performance previously reserved for supercars relatively accessible. EVs such as the BYD Tang, Polestar 2, Volvo XC40 and C40 and the newcomers from Nio also reach 100 km/h in less than 5 seconds. Is all that really necessary?

Of course, not everything is actually necessary in the car world. From extensive semi-autonomous driving systems to an arsenal of displays and from digital assistants you can talk to to systems that drive your car into the parking space itself. Such things drive up prices, but still serve a certain comfort or safety-enhancing purpose. But what about performance? Active safety systems often ensure that you can accelerate relatively safely at a spinal cord crushing pace, but not every fellow road user is prepared for this and not every driver is alert enough for this.

Then we are only talking about the acceleration times. You can certainly wonder what top speeds of well above 200 km / h or even 250 km / h or more are for. Proponents of such performance undoubtedly argue that not everything that can be done should be necessary, and that it is simply fun to drive a fast car. Opponents claim that it does not benefit road safety and that cars may be much more efficient and cleaner if the focus during development is on driving as low as possible with emissions. Accelerating too slowly also has serious disadvantages. Getting past a potentially unsafe situation quickly is not possible with a Dacia Spring at speed, for example.

As you can see, there are countless arguments for both sides. So it’s time for an inventory, in which we posit the following statement:

‘0-100 km/h in ten seconds is fast enough’

Does that statement apply to you? Why or why not? To be clear: the statement does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the AutoWeek editors.

You can add explanations and arguments in the comments. As always, your opinion does not have to be someone else’s. We should all be on AutoWeek.nl because we have a thing for cars, so be kind to each other and try not to get too carried away.

Did you know that you can now also search for acceleration times in Carbase? This way you can reach 100 km / h faster than a Tesla Model S Plaid reaches all cars that reach 100 km / h in less than 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10 seconds. You can also search by top speed. Did you know that there are no less than 166 models or engine versions for sale that run faster than 280 km / h?