Musk delays Model S Plaid launch for “one more week of tweak”

Tesla has postponed the unveiling of its tri-motor Model S electric vehicle by one week, pushing the launch date out to June 10, due to the car needing “one more week of tweak,” according to CEO Elon Musk.

The Model S Plaid, which was due to be unveiled at Tesla’s Fremont factory in California this Thursday (US time), is slated as the “fastest” accelerating production car ever by Musk, able to get from 0-100km/h in under 2 seconds.

Musk flagged the week-long delay on Twitter on the weekend, taking the opportunity to stoke any antipication with by adding that the car felt “like a spaceship. Words cannot describe the limbic resonance.”

“Limbic resonance,” for those wondering, is a phenomenon Musk first publicly discussed on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in 2018; the same episode where he smoked a joint and sent the company stock plummeting.

According to Psychology Today, the term refers to “the energetic exchange that happens between two people who are interacting in a caring and safe relationship.” Make of that what you will.

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.

For those in Australia with a spare $200,000, the Tesla Model S Plaid is available for order for $A199,990 before on-road costs. For your money, you get 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.

You also get a driving range listed on Tesla’s Australian website at 837km, but that’s accroding to the NEDC (dubbed “not even damn close”) standard. Actual driving range would be closer to the US-based EPA rating of 412 miles (662km).

The Plaid also 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. Limbic resonance, priceless.