What's the latest buzz in electric cars? Speed, baby!

Tesla and other manufacturers, hoping to shake the image of fuel-efficient vehicles

The white four-door sedan rolled up to the starting line at a racetrack outside Los Angeles this month and lurched to a stop. Then the driver floored the pedal with a thunk.

After 2.275507139 seconds—about the time it takes to pick up a penny from the floor—the sedan had reached 60 miles an hour, faster than any production car since Motor Trend magazine began conducting these tests more than 60 years ago. The previous record of 2.34 seconds belonged to a $1.4 million Ferrari LaFerrari.

After the test, the jubilant chief executive of the company that built this record-smashing beast took to