Almost a decade after launching the revolutionary Model S, Tesla has unveiled the new flagship Plaid.
The new Model S Plaid promises to be the most exciting vehicle ever made by Tesla as the car will be powered by a three-motor all-wheel drive powertrain that will deliver an incredible 1,006bhp and will be able to go from 0-62mph in 1.99 seconds, which is quicker than any road supercar on sale today.
The EV will have a top speed of 200 mph and, as WhichEV reported, will cover the quarter mile in 9.23 seconds, which is the quickest time of any factory production car in the world.
The EV not only will be incredibly fast, but it will also have a solid range of 390 miles. Tesla says that the newest 250kW Tesla Supercharging rapid charging technology will add 187 miles of range in just 15 minutes.
This car is the living proof that EVs are now the best vehicles in the world, according to Elon Musk.
“Why make this really fast car that’s crazy fast?” he said. “There is something that’s quite important to the future of sustainable energy, which is that we’ve got to show that an electric car is the best car, hands down.”
Some designs aspects are different from the previous Model S such as a deeper front splitter, wider side skirts, a bigger diffuser and a ducktail spoiler. Tesla has also fitted larger brakes, lowered suspension, new suspension dampers and a wider track, along with a revised torque vectoring system. Also, the Plaid has the lowest drag coefficient of any production car currently on sale, at 0.208Cd.
The interior has also been redesigned, with a flight-yoke style steering wheel, a new digital gauge cluster, a 22-speaker stereo system and an enormous 17-inch landscape infotainment system, which Musk says is better suited to watching movies.
“If you think about where the future of the car is, often in Autopilot or self-driving mode, then entertainment is going to become increasingly important,” he said. “You’re going to want to watch movies, play games, use the internet.”
Tesla has also increased its focus on safety, with Musk claiming that, in the event of an accident, the Model S Plaid will soon have the “lowest probability of injury of any car ever tested.”
The first 25 Plaid cars were handed over to customers on Thursday, and Musk said he expected the company to deliver 1,000 a week by next quarter. The Plaid has a starting price of $129,990 in the US and £118,980 in the UK.