Tesla Model S Plaid 2023 Review

Intro, Price, Options and Verdict

Introduction

Teslas have always been fast. This was one of the features that made them the first electric cars people aspired to own rather than feeling they should buy for environmental reasons. Elon Musk has continually tried to keep ahead in this area, and the Tesla Model S Plaid was meant to be the next leap forward – a five-seater executive saloon that will accelerate to 60 mph in under two seconds.

The Plaid was first delivered to US customers over two years ago, and has been available in Europe since the end of last year. But it has only just arrived in the UK, and there’s a catch. There will be no right-hand-drive version, only left-hand-drive. This might be a compromise you’re willing to make for a luxury family car that can humiliate a supercar off the lights.

Price and Options

The first thing that needs to be underlined about the Tesla Model S in the UK is that, alongside it only being available in left-hand-drive form, you can’t place a custom order. Instead, you can only peruse the inventory and purchase from that. The upside is that you should be able to receive your car quite quickly after you complete the transaction. The downside is that you may have to make do with a specification that isn’t quite what you were hoping for.

Why Tesla has chosen to ignore the right-hand-drive market with the Tesla Model S Plaid is highly questionable when a third of the world drives on this side of the road. Presumably it’s because the volume for this car is low compared to the 3 and Y, so it wasn’t a priority, particularly with a new version of the 3 imminent and the much-anticipated smaller car on the horizon. But other manufacturers seem to manage it, so who knows. After all the hoopla about the Plaid, it’s very surprising.

There are no special colours for the Plaid edition, either. The choices are white as the base paint. Alternatively, you can choose black, the grey of our review car, blue, or red. You can also choose between the base 19in Tempest wheels or 21 Arachnids, which is what our car had. There are three interiors, and you can either have the regular steering wheel or the yoke, as this is apparently something you can ask Tesla to change for you when ordering from inventory. Then of course there are the Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving Capability options. As these are software updates, you should be able to select these even from an inventory car.

The Plaid arrives alongside an updated dual-motor Tesla Model S, which you can also buy ony in left-hand-drive form from inventory in the UK. However, even though you can’t customise your order here, we are still being exploited for the price compared to America. The Model S Plaid is available in the US for under $110,000, but you're going to be paying over £113,000 here in the UK, which is a huge premium. The non-Plaid Model S is £20k less.

At the time of writing, the cheapest cars on inventory were £115,630. Our test car would cost around £120,030, although it had Enhanced Autopilot so was probably a little more. That price tag puts the new Model S in the same league as the BMW i7 and Mercedes EQS. The BMW has slightly less range, but isn't as quick, even if you go for the M70 version with 660hp. The EQS has more range and is a lot less quick. The much more expensive AMG version only offers similar performance to the BMW i7 M70. Even the non-Plaid dual motor Model S has more power than either BMW or Mercedes-AMG.

In other words, nothing can touch the Plaid for performance, which is hardly news with the quarter mile records it held at launch. Neither the BMW i7 nor Mercedes EQS can match it for boot space practicality as well (see below). But they do surpass it for interior luxury, which for some types of buyers might be more important – for example, if you’re running the car as a luxury limousine, or a chauffeur-driven company transport for dignitaries. The Plaid, in contrast, is primarily about being uncompromisingly fast.

Design, Comfort and Storage

Exterior Design

Although the Plaid has a new drivetrain and considerably upgraded interior, the external appearance hasn’t changed much. In fact, there’s not much to differentiate this car from the previous Model S Performance that we reviewed back in 2020. The door handles and trim are now matte black rather than chrome, like the current Model 3 and Y.

The 21in Arachnid rims are a new option, with a new 19in Tempest wheel the base rim style. Both wheels look better than what they replaced. But otherwise, the Model S could really have done with a serious facelift, as would befit its significant leap forward in power and technology. The only obvious sign that this is a Tesla with over 1,000hp is the Plaid badge on the back. If you don't know the origins of the Plaid name and symbol, it's from the movie Spaceballs, where the velocities beyond lightspeed are called Ludicrous and Plaid. It’s a typically Elon Musk geek joke but will appeal to the intended audience.

In other words, you won't be buying the Model S for its innovative looks. But you might be buying it for the technology inside and interior changes, which we will get onto next.

Interior Comfort

Where the exterior is relatively unchanged, the interior has had a significant update over the original S. Obviously, the steering wheel is now on the wrong side, but we'll get back to that. The wood veneer has been replaced with much more fetching and appropriate carbon fibre, although this “walnut” veneer is still used with the black interior. The three upholstery options we mentioned earlier include the default black, white, and cream. Our review car had the latter and it’s our favourite of the trio, with a classy look.

Both driver and passenger seats have electrical adjustment, and the driver’s settings are linked to their key and software profile, so it’s easy to restore the position. The front seats are heated as is the steering wheel. Earlier Tesla Model S seats have been accused of not being that comfortable, but the 2020 version didn’t have this problem, and the Plaid seats are excellent. They are not quite sport seats but still hold you in place firmly which we tend to prefer for longer journeys.

Of course, the big change is in the technology. We'll get to what this means for the controls in a later section, but the most obvious difference is that the central screen is now landscape, which provides more space for dual wireless phone chargers underneath than the former portrait orientation. There's still no HUD, but as you have an instrument binnacle, there's more room for other things on the central screen than with a Model 3 or Y, which only have the infotainment screen.

The central console has a couple of cupholders beneath a spring-loaded sliding door, which also opens further to reveal a small cubby. There’s another cubby beneath the armrest. When we shot the video for this car, we couldn’t find any USB ports in the front. They are actually hidden in front of the cupholders inside the small cubby, and you would never find them unless you knew where to look. Both are USB C only, however, so you will need the right cable. The glove compartment is not that huge and requires a trip to the infotainment screen to open. Tesla fans claim using the voice controls is a better option, but we’ve found this to be highly temperamental.

There is a decent amount of rear passenger space available in the S, and the seats will be very comfortable for a couple of adults with more headroom than a Porsche Taycan. The panoramic sunroof adds to the sense of space in the back. However, the middle seat is a bit cramped, and its back is further forward, making it less comfortable than the outer seats. But if you only have two in the rear you can drop down the fully featured armrest, which even includes wireless chargers for two more phones. If their phones don’t support this, there are two more USB C ports in the rear as well.

The big change in the rear is the small screen that now resides in the place where you’d normally expect to find air vents for back seat passengers. As well as providing touchscreen climate controls, this also provides access to streaming media, including Netflix, Twitch and YouTube. This will be great for keeping your kids entertained on a long journey, although the low position might induce car sickness.

Surprisingly, there are no seat-back pockets for rear passengers to store things in. But there are the usual ISOfix points available on the two outer rear seats to strap children’s car seats down with – which could be useful in a vehicle that can accelerate as fast as this.

Storage and Load Carrying

One of the more practical aspects of the Model S is that it's a hatchback, and there is lots of luggage space in the rear. In fact, this is a class leading boot and way ahead of competitors such as the BMW i7 or Mercedes EQS. It would even give many estate cars a run for their money. The tailgate is powered, although there is no kick opening for maximum convenience. But you do get buttons near the back of the boot to unlock the rear seats remotely.

Even with the rear seats up, you get a capacious 745 litres. Drop the seats down – with a 60/40 split – and this expands to 1,645 litres, which isn’t far off a decently sized SUV such as the Skoda Enyaq iV. The floor is quite flat but with a large extra compartment beneath. You also get nearly 60 litres more cargo space available in the frunk, which is useful for your charging cables. Basically, there's plenty of room for a family holiday trip, airport run, or even taking your kids' stuff to university. The towing capacity is 750kg unbraked and a considerable 1,850kg unbraked.

In-Car Entertainment and Controls

Although the Plaid can come with a yoke steering wheel, thankfully it’s an option rather than compulsory. Our review car didn’t come with it. Those who have “cracked the yoke” say they get used to it and even like it, and you can allegedly ask for it (or not) whatever the car you buy from inventory has to begin with. But yoke or no yoke, there are some radical changes to the way the Model S is controlled.

Starting the system, if you don't have a phone paired as your key, involves placing the card on the nearest phone charging space and pressing the brake pedal. With your phone paired, you can miss out the bit with the key. So far, so Tesla. But once you want to put the car into drive mode, you’ll notice something missing – no steering wheel stalks. The drive control stalk has been replaced by a slider that appears on the edge of the infotainment screen – up is drive, down reverse, and a button at the top engages park. The indicators don’t have their own stalk either. Instead, there are buttons on the lefthand side of the steering wheel.

This takes some getting used to, and you need to think about what you’re doing or even look if you want to indicate when the wheel is turned. There’s another button for the windscreen wipers, and then you use the lefthand wheel to select speed, auto or turn them off. With no stalk for drive modes, there’s no stalk for engaging Autopilot. Instead, the righthand wheel controls everything. You press it for adaptive cruise, then again for autosteer, with the wheel rotation and left-right changing speed and distance.

The instrument display remains, however, giving you an autopilot view, speed readout, and navigation. You can also see windscreen wiper speeds in this display. It's not terrible to use steering wheel buttons for all these functions, but we do have to ask what was wrong with the stalks. It seems like an unnecessary price saving in a car costing over £100,000.

Everything else requires a trip to the central 17in screen. As already mentioned, this is now landscape oriented instead of portrait, and has a high 2,200 by 1,300-pixel resolution. By default, it's tilted towards the driver, but you can also position it head on or towards the passenger. During driving, by default this screen is mostly taken up by the satnav map. There are icons along the bottom for air conditioning and fast access to key functions.

But hit the car icon close to the driver and you get access to the comprehensive and well organised menu. As we’ve noted before, Tesla’s car configuration is top of the pack – easy to navigate and with a consistent menu design throughout. Controlling your vehicle’s settings couldn’t be much simpler. And, of course, you get all the features Tesla is famous for such as over-the-air updates and streaming media, including Spotify. If you’re not driving you can watch Netflix, Twitch and YouTube or even play one of an increasing collection of games.

Naturally, this car is connected – it’s a Tesla. You get this free for a year, after which it's £9.99 a month. That's well worth having compared to how much you pay for connected capabilities from, for example, Mercedes. Tesla’s fee includes streaming audio and video, live traffic, and remote access. Mercedes will have you paying a lot more for just one of those functions.

Performance, Running Costs, Range, and Safety

Performance and Driving

The headline act of the Tesla Model S Plaid is its performance. With 1,020hp from its tri-motor powertrain, this car can famously accelerate to 60mph in under 2 seconds, although its short stint as the fastest accelerating production car has been soundly usurped by the Rimac Nevera. Even the non-Plaid Tesla Model S is no slouch, hitting 60mph in 3.1 seconds, the same as a Tesla Model 3 Performance. The Plaid top speed is a whopping 200mph, although you need the Track Pack for this, otherwise the limit is 155mph. That’s still more than enough for a driving ban.

Rapid acceleration isn't illegal – yet – but the ease with which you can go beyond motorway speeds in a few seconds in the Tesla Model S could put you in risky situations very quickly. It’s also not going to be very popular with many passengers, either. The acceleration is absolutely mind boggling and can make you lightheaded as your blood rushes to the back of your head even when you’re driving. Anyone not expecting it could even get nauseous. Luckily for your passengers, the Model S has adaptive air suspension, so even in sports mode it eats bumps up nicely. It's not in the same league as Mercedes or Range Rover air suspension, but the ride is much more comfortable than the Model 3 or Y.

You can also adjust the steering and the suspension for a more comfort- or sport-oriented setup. However, while this car handles extremely well for a 2.2-ton vehicle, it's not as tight round the bends as a Porsche Taycan or BMW i4 M50. The Model 3 Performance feels more planted, too. But highways are where this car absolutely shines. It can cruise at 70mph so comfortably that those long runs the big battery can deliver will be effortless.

However, the left-hand-drive will have drawbacks for fast A roads. Teslas are brilliant for those situations where you need to grab an opportunity to pass slow traffic on a non-highway. But as you're sitting on the wrong side in the Model S Plaid, this is not such a safe thing to do, as you can't see the traffic going the other way so easily. This makes its immense acceleration less useful on British roads. It's also harder to see right at a junction than it would be if you were on the correct side. But otherwise, this is still a great car to drive, despite its weight.

Range and Charging

The Model S has always been a king of range, and the Plaid continues that tradition. The WLTP rating is 390 miles from the 100kWh (95kWh net) battery, which will be plenty for long runs across continental Europe or up and down the UK, particularly with the Supercharger network to call upon. You only get 15 miles more range with the Dual Motor version of the 2023 Model S.

Tesla has dropped its proprietary connector in Europe and the S now has a standard CCS charge port, so the entire public charging network will be available without an adapter. DC charging has been improved over the last Model S and now goes up to 250kW, so on a Tesla V3 or V4 Supercharger or fast enough third-party rapid charger, you can go from 10 to 80% in about 30 minutes, which means you will have over 300 miles of WLTP range again after a half-hour stop.

If you're lucky enough to have 11kW charging at home, you can go from zero to full in about ten hours, but on a 7kW unit it will be more like 15 hours. Either way, with Tesla's superb Supercharger network at your disposal, long distance driving will be a breeze with the Model S Plaid.

Running Costs

During our testing we managed around 2.9 miles per kWh, which means this car won’t be horrendously expensive to run in electrical power terms, so long as you as restrain your use of the acceleration pedal. However, all Tesla Model S cars are insurance group 50, and with the way prices are going, this won’t be a cheap car to insure.

The basic guarantee is four years or 50,000 miles, although you can pay extra to extend this by a further four years so long as you do this before the original warranty expires. Either way the battery warranty is for 8 years or 150,000 miles, for 70% retention. Tesla’s most recent retention statistics show that the Model S only loses 12% of its capacity after 200,000 miles on average, so you shouldn’t need a new battery for the lifetime of the vehicle.

Safety

Despite our caveats over the left-hand-drive, the Model S has a five-star Euro NCAP rating, with excellent scores in every area, particularly safety assist. Like all other new Teslas, the Model S has emergency braking, collision warning, and blind-spot monitoring. This is assisted by camera views that pop up when you indicate.

There's a dashcam built in, and so long as you have a Flash drive installed in the USB port in the glovebox, it will record events when you hit something or press the horn. You can also turn on sentry mode when the car is parked, and it will detect motion and make a recording. You can even view these cameras remotely using the app.

Tesla’s Autopilot adaptive cruise control comes as standard and includes automatic self-steering on highways. This will sense the road markings and take care of cornering automatically. You do need to keep your hands on the steering wheel and give it a little jiggle every so often to show you're awake, but this is one of the most relaxing cruise controls around. The wheel on the right moves speed limit up and down and you can jog it left and right to alter how much space to leave in front.

The FSD option is still a waste of money in Europe, unless you want to fund Tesla's development of this function. The £3,400 Enhanced Autopilot gives you plenty of extra features for less, including Traffic Light and Stop Sign control. You also get Navigate on Autopilot, which allows the car to change lanes by simply indicating and having a clear space to move into. There's Autopark, too, which frankly doesn't work that well with parallel parking in narrow British streets. Finally, you get Summon and Smart Summon, which let you lead the car out of a parking space that is too tight to open the doors and is useful if you have a narrow garage. But the basic Autopilot will be great on its own for most drivers.

Key Specifications