Tesla has launched the Model S Plaid, with an event at its factory in Fremont, California, on Thursday marking the start of deliveries. Company CEO Elon Musk talked through the nine-year history of the Model S and the details of what he called the "fastest and safest" production car ever made in the Plaid.
The Model S was first launched in 2012 and Tesla introduced a high-performance Ludicrous Mode in 2016. Musk has been teasing the even higher performance Plaid powertrain since then and it was announced in 2019. A Model S Plaid prototype was briefly shown off in 2020, before Plaid variants of the Model S and Model X were finally officially announced in January this year.
Much of what was presented was already known. The Model S Plaid has 1,020 hp, will cover up to 412 miles of range (or 390 in tri-motor mode), hits 60 mph from a standstill in 1.99 seconds, and tops out at 200 mph. "No production car has ever done 0-60 in under 2 seconds," said Musk, who lauded the engineering that accelerates a two-ton vehicle at that speed.
Tesla Model S Plaid Stats
Musk also said: "There is something that's quite important [about the Model S Plaid] to the future of sustainable energy, which is: we've got to show that an electric car is the best car, hands down." Among the new tidbits he gave as evidence of this was a confirmed quarter-mile time of 9.23 seconds. Like its 0-60 mph time, that is a record too, making the Model S Plaid faster over a quarter-mile than a Bugatti Chiron.
Musk made a particular point of detailing the new electric motor for the Model S Plaid, which he said there had never been one like before. Featuring what he said Tesla believed to be the first ever carbon-sleeved rotors, the motor apparently kicks out at 20,000+ rpm. Elsewhere, a new heat pump gives 30 percent better cold weather range and has a radiator that keeps the car performing at its best with minimal degradation — or, as Musk put it, the car "doesn't get winded." The Model S Plaid is also said to have the lowest drag coefficient of any production car.
Tesla has now begun delivering the first Model S Plaid vehicles and is expecting to be hitting several hundred deliveries per week soon and over a thousand per week by the next quarter. Musk announced a matter of days ago, meanwhile, that the longer-range Model S Plaid Plus has been canceled.
Source: Tesla/YouTube