New 1,100PS Tesla super saloon
It seems this is the week of the super saloon, as hot on the heels of the BMW M5 CS, Tesla has announced the long-awaited update to its long-serving Model S flagship saloon. Not a lot has changed on the surface but on the inside, both in terms of the cabin and the guts of the car, it’s all gone very sci-fi.
We’ll start with the big news. Tesla’s so-called ‘Plaid’ and ‘Plaid+’ variants are here. The latter the marque rather confidently says is the “quickest 0-60mph and quarter mile acceleration of any production car ever” on its website.
So, the raw numbers. Plaid and Plaid+ pack a massive 1,020PS (750kW) and 1,100PS (809kW) respectively, with 0-62mph times in the mid to low two-second range. Both are said to be good for a top speed in excess of 200mph.
The difference between the two, apart from the small power jump, is range. Plaid+ presumably uses a different or newer-generation battery (the exact details are unclear at this point), packing an extremely impressive 520-mile range capability. The ‘standard’ Plaid is ‘only’ good for 390 miles. That actually makes it the lowest-range Model S you can buy, given the existing long-range car that’s carrying over is capable of 412 miles.
So what’s going on underneath these Plaid cars? Wide-bodied Model S prototypes were caught testing the new powertrain at the Nürburgring last year and Elon Musk claims they’re good for five-times as many hard launches as a conventional Model S. All that power and durability comes courtesy of three new high-performance drive units with carbon-sleeved rotors. It’s not a new concept for Tesla, with a tri-motor setup first being announced for the reborn Roadster three years ago. With two motors on the rear axle, that means it’s also capable of torque vectoring.
Now, if changes to the exterior are barely worth mentioning, the inside is nothing but change. The old car’s cabin is entirely gone, with a new horizontal screen, digital display and peculiar sci-fi steering wheel. As you can see, calling it a wheel at all might be a little generous. Bold a design as it is, it’s nothing new from Tesla. A similar ‘wheel’ was previewed in the above second-generation Roadster prototype. As you might be able to see, the new screen should be a boon for gamers. It allegedly packs enough computing power to run The Witcher III and Cyberpunk 2077.
These new hypercar beaters aren’t cheap, though the blow ought to be softened by news of the aforementioned BMW M5 CS. While that car, with its 635PS (467kW) and 3.0-second 0-62mph time will set you back £140,780, the Model S Plaid+ starts from £130,980. The Plaid meanwhile is £110,980 and the Long Range starts from £83,980. Does that make these new mega-Teslas actually quite good value? Possibly. We’d quite like to see where the arches of the prototypes have gone, though…
It’s also worth noting that the Model X has undergone similar updates to the Model S, albeit omitting the option of the full-fat Plaid+ specification. Plaid gives the big crossover a 0-62mph time of under 3 seconds and a top speed of 163mph. It’ll go 340 miles, and set you back the same as the Model S Plaid – £110,980.
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