A Tesla Model 3 usually sells for something like $50,000, I'd guess - it's not competing with a Honda Accord. This article is a year old so it's outdated, but it suggests an average sale price of $60,000 for the Model 3. This clearly puts it in the luxury/performance price bracket.
The engine is considered highly fuel efficient, rated well above 30mpg for most variants and many people report >40mpg in real world usage (obviously this data will be biased towards higher numbers).
The emissions, however, are supposedly great but I don't trust VW at all on this front so I'll just assume they're doing something shady. They are being legally sold in California though, which is really the highest emissions bar there is, so I'm not sure what you'd expect from them (again, assuming they aren't doing shady shit).
And unusually for VW, this is considered a reliable engine. It's been around and iterated upon for much longer than any Tesla.
There is no apples-to-apples comparison between electric and gasoline vehicles, but claiming one of the most highly awarded engines in recent history is lacking in performance is like claiming Teslas are worthless in cold climates - it's more rumor than fact.
I personally know people considering a mid tier Honda Accord vs the base model 3. The numbers they have run provide similar lifetime costs, though clearly many early adopters are less price conscious. Historically, Tesla was not going to make a base model when their was more profit from manufacturing a more expensive car.
Back to that IC engine “With a mild tune” is an issue. You can get reasonable performance on a tiny hatchback with the stock 149 bhp EA888 but that’s not going to cut it on a midsized sedan. Want more performance from the same basic hardware and you will make some real sacrifices, weight, fuel economy, engine life, etc one or more things need to give.
Pretending otherwise is to suggest vast numbers of automotive designers are idiots.
I feel like you just ignore all the numbers I write and invent new ones. A stock Golf R with an EA888 engine makes 292 hp and 280 lb-ft of torque - significantly more than any Accord you can buy new. A Golf R with a mild tune (just software) will generate closer to 350 hp, and moderate-serious tunes start around 400 hp. They also use this engine in their Passat, which is a mid-size sedan which competes directly with the Accord and weighs about the same.
You need to be making an apples or apples comparison for different numbers to be meaningful.
The base golf gets 25 city / 34 highway a Golf R gets 22 city / 29 highway. With a mid tune that golf R gets even worse mileage. These numbers drop further when you talk about a larger car with more wind resistance or weight. https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/PowerSearch.do?action=noform...
Taking a 25+% cut to fuel economy to use a lighter engine is a really bad tradeoff for most people. Especially when the point of this discussion was talking about fuel density comparisons.
On top of this IC’s also need a much larger and more complex transmission among other things which should be included in the weight comparison.
https://cleantechnica.com/2018/08/23/tesla-model-3-average-s...
Apart from that, the EA888 engine I mentioned is used in the VW Golf, the 7th best selling car in the world.
https://www.best-selling-cars.com/global/2018-full-year-inte...
The engine is considered highly fuel efficient, rated well above 30mpg for most variants and many people report >40mpg in real world usage (obviously this data will be biased towards higher numbers).
The emissions, however, are supposedly great but I don't trust VW at all on this front so I'll just assume they're doing something shady. They are being legally sold in California though, which is really the highest emissions bar there is, so I'm not sure what you'd expect from them (again, assuming they aren't doing shady shit).
And unusually for VW, this is considered a reliable engine. It's been around and iterated upon for much longer than any Tesla.
There is no apples-to-apples comparison between electric and gasoline vehicles, but claiming one of the most highly awarded engines in recent history is lacking in performance is like claiming Teslas are worthless in cold climates - it's more rumor than fact.