The Tesla Model S Plaid Plus is dead. Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday announcing the range-topping variant of the EV maker’s flagship sedan has been canceled, breaking the hearts of Tesla fans and those who had put in their pre-orders. A few days back, CNET had reported that the Tesla website had grayed out the Plaid Plus barring the shoppers from placing an order for the most powerful variant of the Model S. This predicted an imminent demise of the range-topper that was announced with much fanfare at the end of last year. According to Musk, the supercharged version of the Plaid version is simply unnecessary. “Plaid+ is canceled. No need, as Plaid is just so good,” the billionaire tweeted. “0 to 60mph in under 2 secs. Quickest production car ever made of any kind. Has to be felt to be believed.”
Model S goes to Plaid speed this week
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 6, 2021
The Tesla Model S Plaid Plus was announced last year with a tri-motor setup that could deliver a combined output of 1100hp. Tesla also promised a range of 520 miles on a fully charged battery and an acceleration time of 0-60mph in less than 2 seconds. It originally had a price tag of $140,000, which was increased by another $10,000 back in March. The Tesla Model S Plaid will now serve as the range-topping variant which retails for $119,900. It promises a 390-mile range, 1020 horsepower and acceleration from 0 to 60 miles per hour in two seconds. A few days back, Musk tweeted that the delivery event for the electric sedan would be pushed back until June 10 in order to finish one last tweak.
Model S Plaid delivery pushed to June 10. Needs one more week of tweak.
This car feels like a spaceship. Words cannot describe the limbic resonance.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 29, 2021
Tesla does not operate a public relations department to field requests for comment, which means all we have right now on the latest development are the tweets by Musk. And the logic given by the Tesla CEO sounds silly at best. There could be several reasons why Tesla had to cancel the Plaid Plus model. The first of them is the American EV maker could have been bogged down by the severe shortage of semiconductors and other supply chain issues created by the Covid-19 pandemic that has affected the entire automobile industry across the world. The other reason could be that the Plaid Plus model was simply not economically viable to build. Or is it simply that the specifications and performance figures claimed by Tesla were too good to be true? Well, who knows! Now, all eyes on the Tesla Roadster that hopefully doesn’t suffer the same fate.
[Via: TechCrunch]
