Tesla Model S plaid
Source: Tesla
Tesla began shipping its new Model S Plaid, a high-performance version of the company’s flagship electric sedan, Thursday with a livestream event on the company’s test track near its facility in Fremont, California.
The company’s design director, Franz von Holzhausen, served as master of ceremonies and carried a sledgehammer onto the stage to introduce CEO Elon Musk – a humorous nod to a previous event where von Holzhausen smashed and smashed the window of a cybertruck on the stage.
Musk made his appearance Thursday by driving a Model S plaid across the Tesla test track and onto the stage before stepping out to the cheers of selected customers and fans invited to the event.
Earlier, Musk had promised the Tesla Model S Plaid would accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in less than 2 seconds, and he repeatedly crowed Thursday about “breaking the 2-second barrier.”
Musk said the new Model S is “faster than Porsche, but safer than Volvo”. But he also admitted some of his own sweeping safety claims by noting that the NHTSA has not yet rated the Model S plaid for safety.
Tesla should “deliver the first 25 cars tonight, soon several hundred cars a week and thousands a week in the next quarter,” said Musk.
According to Tesla’s website, the three-engine, all-wheel-drive Model S Plaid has 1,020 horsepower, has a battery with an estimated EPA range of up to 390 miles, and can reach a top speed of 300 mph when equipped with the correct wheels and tires . According to the small print on the website, these won’t be available until autumn.
On Thursday, Musk didn’t reveal any significant details about the Model S Plaid’s battery pack and simply said, “We have a completely new battery.” (Tesla is struggling to make a 4680 battery cell that it has developed and plans to use in its own vehicles one day.)
Musk quickly went from briefly mentioning the battery to showing pictures of the Model S Plaid’s drive unit, and bragging about a “carbon-wrapped” rotor that is part of the vehicle’s electric motor.
“You can pick up this motor with your hands and it can get a two-ton car to 60 mph in 2 seconds. That kind of power-to-weight ratio is insane,” he said.
He found that the Model S Plaid can reach a range of 187 miles in just 15 minutes on a Tesla Supercharger. Participants would have the opportunity to drive around the route, he said.
Musk also announced myriad changes to the inside of the Model S plaid, most of which were previously announced.
The car features a steering yoke instead of a traditional steering wheel, a 17-inch touchscreen display in the center and a separate 8-inch display in the rear for passenger entertainment, front and rear charging ports for charging laptops and other mobile devices , and processing power that the company says brings its systems on par with modern game consoles like the PlayStation 5.
2021 Tesla Model S checkered interior
Tesla.com
As Musk began discussing updates to the Model S Plaid’s user interface, attendees began to bother him, shouting for “waypoints,” a feature the company had long wanted to include in its navigation system. With waypoints, drivers could enter multiple destinations for a trip within the Tesla navigation system.
“You really want waypoints,” the CEO said approvingly. “Okay, well, we’re making waypoints. Damn it. Okay, “laughed Musk.
He also said that with the autopilot on, Model S Plaid could guess which direction, location, and route a driver is trying to take. “It’ll just minimize the amount of input you have to do until the car just reads your mind,” Musk said.
He did not specify which versions of Tesla’s software would be required in a Model S Plaid software to enable this level of automation.
Tesla’s standard autopilot and premium full self-driving options don’t make the company’s cars self-driving. Instead, they are driver assistance systems that, according to the company’s operating instructions, require the company to actively monitor and communicate with government agencies, including the California DMV, at all times.
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Fans were expecting Model S Plaid shipments to begin earlier this year after Musk said the company started production back in January as part of a Tesla call for profits. Then Tesla reported that Model S (and Model X) production in vehicle deliveries and production update had dropped to zero in the first quarter.
Before the heavily advertised delivery event on Thursday, which was originally scheduled for Jan.
Musk said in two tweets in which Model S Plaid was hyped before shipments started: “Plaid + is canceled. No need as Plaid is just that good, “he added,” 0 to 60 mph in less than 2 seconds, sort of. Has to be felt to be believed. “
On Thursday, the price of the Model S plaid had risen by $ 10,000 to $ 129,990 – compared to $ 79,990 for a 2021 long-range Model S, a four-wheel drive version of the two-engine electric sedan and 405 mile battery range.
The nickname Plaid for Tesla’s high-powered version of the Model S is a continuation of the company’s homage to “Spaceballs” – the 1980s Star Wars parody co-written, produced and directed by Mel Brooks. In “Spaceballs” spaceships accelerate from light to ridiculous, then ridiculous speed and finally to “plaid”. Earlier versions of Tesla vehicles featured the Ludicrous mode, which Tesla first announced in July 2015.
