WHEN SPEED IS ALL THAT MATTERS (some text hidden) SECTIONED_new_teslamodelsplaid_2024

By Jonathan Crouch

Introductionword count: 80

The Tesla Model S was a very complete luxury performance EV, but to create something very special, its American manufacturer added more power to create this top Plaid version - a Model S that gained vast extra speed without really sacrificing anything. In the final post-2023-era form we focus on here, it has 1,020hp, goes 200mph, gets to 62mph in under 2 seconds and costs a fraction over £100,000. The best electric car of its time? Possibly. The fastest? Certainly.

Modelsword count: 3

5dr Fastback (EV)

Historyword count: 202

Tesla specialises in going against convention. And with this car, the Model S Plaid, it did so once more. The Plaid was the ultimate version of the Model S, a car that until 2019 offered an unremarkable top-spec version featuring a 'Performance' badge. This tri-motor Plaid variant switched things up a gear when it arrived in 2020, with a level of performance that decimated the luxury EV opposition. It sold in its original form until 2021, after which it was taken off the market for two years prior to an extensive design revamp, the result of which arrived in 2023. By then, Tesla had decided it was no longer going to make the Model S in right hand drive form, so it was left hand drive-only from 2023 onwards. The designation 'Plaid' came from the parody film 'Spaceballs', released in 1987. In this movie, a spaceship reaches 'Ludicrous Speed' (a designation previously used for quick drive modes on top Teslas) and then the ultimate 'Plaid Speed' representing the pinnacle of performance. And this car aimed to offer exactly that. In compensation though, it claimed to be the fastest-accelerating production car in the world. The car was finally taken off sale in 2025.

What You Getword count: 415

Very little differentiates the look of this top Plaid variant from a standard Model S Dual Motor derivative - which with this post-2023-era car meant it shared all the final visual changes made to update this long-running design. Plaid identifiers include a bespoke lower front splitter, while at the rear, there's a revised rear diffuser and a subtle spoiler on the boot lid. There are big 21-inch wheels too and on the Plaid, they come with red brake calipers. There aren't really any Plaid identifying changes within this post-2023-era Model S's completely updated interior, which unfortunately seats you on the wrong side of the cabin thanks to this car's left hand drive-only production format. Tesla offered original owners of this '23-era-onwards car the option of fitting a weird yoke-like steering wheel, a tiller cut in half like the tiller from a space ship - though a conventional wheel was also available as an alternative. The 17-inch landscape-format central screen was introduced as part of this final set of Model S updates. The brand stuck with a separate instrument screen; on smaller Teslas, drive instruments are confined to the near side of the central monitor. In true Tesla fashion, the cabin's very minimalistic - even more with the brand's deletion of the column stalks that had previously been provided for indicating and gear changes. Instead, the Model S guesses your intended direction of travel and requires you to confirm its prediction by tapping the brake pedal. Or you can just use a provided slider on the side of the centre screen. As for the wipers and indicators, well they're controlled with capacitive buttons on the steering tiller - the car uses its cameras and a steering angle sensor to know when to cancel the indicators. Which seems a very complicated way of fixing something that didn't really need to be fixed. In the rear, the standards of head and legroom on offer are unremarkable for a car in this class, but what is impressive is this car's ability to comfortably look after three fully-sized adults. Headroom's good, even for six-footers, but the rear seat squab is set quite low in relation to the floor, which doesn't deliver an ideal seating position. There's no third row seating option, as there was previously on a Model S. Out back, you get a simply huge 793-litre boot, extendable to 1,645-litres with the inflexibly-orientated 60:40-split rear bench flattened. There's also an 89-litre 'frunk' for the charging leads under the bonnet.

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