That’s all we need to say about the introduction of the new flagship Plaid Model S. The banner headlines are more than enough. Tesla introduced the Model S Plaid at the company’s recent Battery Day event hosted by Elon Musk himself. The Model S Plaid produces an insane 1,100bhp and Tesla claims it will rootin-tootin’ the 0-62mph dash in under 2 seconds. And if that’s not enough, it is capable of reaching a top speed of 200mph.
Tesla also claims that the Plaid Model S is capable of a 520-mile range on a single charge. Power is supplied by three electric motors. Tesla has made detailed efficiency improvements to eke out as much performance and range as possible.
While the underlying technology is the same, the energy density of batteries has improved since the Model S was introduced in 2012. At the Tesla Battery Event, Elon Musk said smaller, more powerful energy-dense batteries will also provide longer ranger. But these new cylinder-cells are still three years away from production reality.
However, the Plaid Model S has but one purpose, to defeat the forthcoming Lucid Air which offers more performance than the Model S. That is until the Plaid was revealed by Tesla. At least Lucid can claim that it offers more luxury than Tesla.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The only thing beyond Ludicrous is Plaid</p>— Tesla (@Tesla) <a href="https://twitter.com/Tesla/status/1308617112722632704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 23, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
However, even with the introduction of the Plaid Model S, the Lucid Air is looking like a serious if expensive rival to Tesla. But the Plaid Model S will not be cheap, prices are set to start from $140,000.
