Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has finally started delivering the fastest car in the world to date, and some features did surprise the automaker’s fans. The company delivered 25 Model S Plaid sedans at an event at its factory in Fremont, Calif. on Thursday and promised to pick up the delivery pace in the coming weeks and months.
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Tesla Delivers The First Model S Plaids
The Model S Plaid starts at $129,990 after a $10,000 price increase, although Tesla said existing orders placed at the lower price would be honored. The car sports a tri-motor powertrain with one electric motor in the front and two in the back, adding up to 1,020 horsepower. The automaker touts the Plaid variant of the Model S as the most powerful sedan available today.
Tesla claims the car can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in less than 2 seconds and drive a quarter of a mile in 9.23 seconds. If those numbers are accurate, they would be records for production cars. The automaker also said the Model S Plaid could reach a top speed of 200 miles per hour.
The car has a listed range of 390 miles on a full charge, and it takes only 15 minutes of charging at a Tesla Supercharger station to fill the battery up with 187 miles of range. The automaker had been working on a Plaid+ variant of the car that would have had even more power and a range of 520 miles. However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said last week that they had canceled the Plaid+ because the Plaid was "just so good."
Tesla will also start offering a slower long-range variant of the Model S with dual motors that can travel 412 miles on a full charge. The car will start at $79,990, and deliveries will start later.
Surprises In The Model S Plaid
The Plaid variant of the Model S features an all-new interior with touchscreens for the front and backseats. According to Musk, it also has an infotainment system powered by an AMD Ryzen processer that's on the level with those used in the PlayStation 5. He showed off the system running the game Cyberpunk 2077.
Musk said during the delivery event last night, "There's never been a car that has state-of-the-art computing technology, state-of-the-art infotainment, where this is literally at the level of a PlayStation 5." He emphasized that the system features a high frame rate and can run 60 frames per second. Passengers can also connect wireless gaming controllers to the system using Bluetooth.
The Model S Plaid also features a rectangular steering wheel without any stalks on the column. Drivers control the turn signals and lights using thumb controls on the spokes. The car also has the newest version of the automaker's Full Self-Driving system, which uses eight cameras and 12 ultrasonic sensors for partial driving automation.
Tesla is part of the Entrepreneur Index, which tracks 60 of the largest publicly traded companies managed by their founders or their founders' families.
