In public form, "recently"... Model S Specs and Standard Features | Tesla Motors Curb weight: 4,647.3 lbs
Years back they even said 3825lbs... First Look at the New 2012 Tesla Model S - Photos and Just-Released Details at RoadandTrack.com 2012 Tesla Model S new photos released etc., etc., ... Unfortunately I think it is all too common in the auto industry for production cars to come in a lot heavier than the early estimates. Among other things, as safety tests become more stringent, additional strengthening needs to be added which adds weight. They probably had a lot of meetings to debate each pound that had to be added here and there. Also the drive-train engineers probably got asked to produce more torque to still meet performance goals in spite of added weight.
I'm bummed since the 300lb penalty from the competition might result in giving up 1st place on the track : http://media.caranddriver.com/files/2013-audi-s6-vs-2013-bmw-m5-2012-mercedes-benz-e63-amg-1.pdf
Good point, I'd bet dry weight, because I'm sure they always shoot for the lowest possible number to print. Racing with a full tank sloshing around might be enough to shift the balance back to Model S.
4,700lbs? So now that the cars are in customers' hands, it seems as though the lid is off on the final production curb weight for the Model S: 4,642lbs. That seems quite a bit higher than the 3800-4,000lbs that Tesla had been hinting at over the last year or so. In fact, I thought one of the reps at a Beta event said it should be "pretty close" to 4,000lbs. Anyone have any insight into why that is? That makes the Karma at 5,300lbs not look quite as glutenous as it first appeared vis a vis the Model S (now the difference is 600lbs rather than the estimated 1600lbs.....)
i would still hope 60kwh and 40 kwh will be sig lighter in spite of reports they will weigh the same....
Why? Presumably you don't really care about the weight, but the things you think you'd get without it, such as range and acceleration? I'm guessing the weight difference is fairly small overall and so you really wouldn't gain much of anything with a marginally lighter battery pack.
True, but it doesn't have regen. Keeping a car in motion going in motion isn't a big change in efficiency. Rolling efficiency is pretty good regardless of weight unless you get into semi truck size. The efficiency loss is in starting and stopping that extra mass, but with regen that's not nearly as big a factor.