Tesla will launch the tri-motor Model S in a delivery event at its Fremont factory in California on June 3, CEO and co-founder Elon Musk said on Twitter on Friday (Australia time).
It will be the “fastest” accelerating production car ever, said Musk, although adding that it will accelerate from a standing start to 60mph (96.5km/hr) in under 2 seconds.
That’s pretty fast. It matches the upcoming 2022 Roadster (the one without rocket thrusters) and is quicker than the Porsche 918 Spyder.
Already available for order in Australia for an eye-watering $A199,990 before on-road costs, the Model S Plaid is Tesla’s most expensive volume production vehicle.
Specifications for the vehicle include 1,100 horsepower, the ability to do a drag race benchmark quarter-mile in under 9 seconds, a top speed of 322km/hr, three high-performance motors, carbon-sleeved rotors and torque vectoring.
Driving range on Tesla’s Australian website is listed at 837km, but it is important to note this is based on the NEDC (dubbed “not even damn close”) standard. Actual driving range will be closer to the US-based EPA rating of 412 miles (662km).
It comes with comes with 19″ tempest wheels as standard, or 21″ “arachnid” wheels for an additional $A5,000.
Carbon fibre black decor can be upgraded to black and white or cream for $A2,900, and the Plaid Model S is of course able to be used with Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” product, which is in beta testing as a full-featured product in the US but is only enabled for certain semi-autonomous features in Australia, for $A10,100.
The highly anticipated electric sedan was first seen in action doing laps at the infamous Nürburgring Nordschleife track, sparking wide interest in whether or not the tri-motor electric vehicle would outdo the Porsche Taycan which was also testing at the track at the time.
At the time, Musk framed the testing week as a “challenge” to the Taycan, and it was reported that it unofficially smashed the electric Porsche’s lap time by an impressive 10 seconds.
It then went on to complete the Laguna Seca lap in 1:30.3 seconds, faster than a McLaren P1.
As announced by Musk at the company’s January earnings call, production for the Plaid commenced in January and first deliveries were slated to take place in February.
The delivery event, if past Tesla events are anything to go by, promises to be an extravaganza.
At the last major vehicle event held by Tesla at which the Cybertruck was unveiled, the audience was treated to a cyber-punkesque feast, and the amusing incident in which Tesla’s chief of design Franz von Holzhausen accidentally put a hole in the Cybertruck’s armoured glass window.
We imagine the Plaid Model S will require a different approach, but sadly as reported in this article about the Roadster’s rocket thrusters, it will not likely include SpaceX-level extremes.
