Ordered my MS Plaid

[whitex]

The 1,100hp could be the same trick as P85D 691hp turned out to be. Tesla will tell people power update will come over-the-air, then couple of years later admit that only some parts of the car are capable of 1,100hp, but as sold it will only ever produce up to 737hp. Of course that is if 1,100hp even survives Elon's "I want to beat Lucid" wish spec to actual production car. Lots of things Elon said in the past for future products never materialized.

 

[whitex]

Ok, be honest. Who else thinks the Plaid delay was an “Elon Audible” to arbitrarily kick the date out a year, pick specs from thin air that are the tiniest bit better than Lucid’s, and figure out the details of how to do it in the interim?

Funny, that was my first thought too. Taking non-committal deposits for something over a year away (which knowing Elon's history could mean many years or never) is not much of an accomplishment really, other than marketing. Elon himself has in the past said that publishing amazing specs of a car not in production means nothing (back then he was using it to dismiss competitor claims of how they'll be releasing more powerful cars than Tesla).

 

[jaguar36]

I was planning on it. But with the same decade old interior and basically the same 10 year old exterior, without even a different body kit or trim package I'm not going to. This would have been my third Model S and I just don't want it to be the exact same thing again, just slightly faster than my P100D. I'm super disappointed that they are basically letting the S wither on the vine and die. Its nowhere near the technological flagship that they said it would be at this point. I'm going to go test drive an M5 today instead.

 

[sillydriver]

I was planning on it. But with the same decade old interior and basically the same 10 year old exterior, without even a different body kit or trim package I'm not going to. This would have been my third Model S and I just don't want it to be the exact same thing again, just slightly faster than my P100D. I'm super disappointed that they are basically letting the S wither on the vine and die. Its nowhere near the technological flagship that they said it would be at this point. I'm going to go test drive an M5 today instead.

I wouldn't have put down a deposit if I thought there was a chance that the plaid would have the same interior and exterior as today's S. Elon spoke of a different, stiffer stressed skin kind of skateboard design where the new form-factor batteries were going to act as a structural component. That's clearly different enough from today's car that the body and interior would need to be structurally redesigned. It would be very strange if that redesign involved exactly duplicating the aged styling of the current car. But unless the new design is ready to ship they would kill current sales. Yes, they showed off the design of the 3, Y, Cybertruck and new roadster long before they were ready to ship, but those were all new cars that had no current sales for a new model to impact. For the S they are using the current design as a placeholder. The picture on the order page doesn't even have the larger spoiler, front air dam or other aero that all the plaid test mules have had, and that the new plaid S would need. So the fact that the car on the order page looks no different doesn't say anything about the way the car that actually ships in a year will look.

 

[domodan]

I wouldn't have put down a deposit if I thought there was a chance that the plaid would have the same interior and exterior as today's S. Elon spoke of a different, stiffer stressed skin kind of skateboard design where the new form-factor batteries were going to act as a structural component. That's clearly different enough from today's car that the body and interior would need to be structurally redesigned. It would be very strange if that redesign involved exactly duplicating the aged styling of the current car. But unless the new design is ready to ship they would kill current sales. Yes, they showed off the design of the 3, Y, Cybertruck and new roadster long before they were ready to ship, but those were all new cars that had no current sales for a new model to impact. For the S they are using the current design as a placeholder. The picture on the order page doesn't even have the larger spoiler, front air dam or other aero that all the plaid test mules have had, and that the new plaid S would need. So the fact that the car on the order page looks no different doesn't say anything about the way the car that actually ships in a year will look.

You’re right that the site image doesn’t mean anything, but it takes a LONG TIME to transition a factory over to producing different parts. They’re planning on building these in a year, those styling changes need to either be done or super close to being done.

I’d bet they don’t change it much.

 

[SilverGS]

Ok, be honest. Who else thinks the Plaid delay was an “Elon Audible” to arbitrarily kick the date out a year, pick specs from thin air that are the tiniest bit better than Lucid’s, and figure out the details of how to do it in the interim?

I thought the exact same thing as well. Its Elon's style. When Porsche released specs of the Taycan's performance on the Ring, he reacted immediately and sent a Model S there to one up the Taycan..............

 

[BestRadar]

Why would I want to spend $140K on a car that is 0.3+ secs faster when its already crazy fast, looks exactly the same, as same quality/interior/exterior, tri-motor (when its a sedan and dual is fine), but yes can go 100+ miles more in range (but for most, 99% of the time you never worry about range)?

Wished they would have focused on some other big exterior/interior and quality updates IMHO.

I 100% agree with you and this was a big disappointment. I think they missed the mark with this price and priced this around $20k more than it should be. There is no way the improvements are worth $45k more than current performance. This is all Margin for them and you cant tell me the Tri-Motor will cost $45k more when they are selling the Cybertruck Tri Motor for $69k a $20k bump over the Dual Motor AWD. I was expecting the same difference in price with the plaid and I would have bought it but they more than doubled it.

 

[serendipitous]

I placed my order. I suspect a refresh will occur as well and that the car will be very different "under the hood," even if the exterior looks largely the same as it does today. Remember that the prototypes are _of course_ going to be based on the car that exists today, so just because the order page shows the same car you can buy now doesn't mean that it will actually look like that in a year or so when it's ready - they can't Osborne their current 100k car by showing that it's totally different in a year. And there's no way to get the specs they're touting with the current frame, pack geometry, pack chemistry, etc. I think the exterior is still fantastic with some small updates like fender flares, larger air intake, etc as shown on the prototypes. The interior could use a modest refresh and a little more up-market treatment (ventilated/AC seats, HUD, some additional storage, etc) but even though it hasn't changed, it's still a very modern and clean look in my opinion. I don't really miss my BMW/Mercedes/Porsche interiors much.

tl;dr: I suspect the 140k Plaid is really a pre-order for the 2021/2022 Model S refresh along with a bonkers powertrain, but even if it isn't, I'll still happily trade my Raven MSP for one.

 

[Al Leong]

I'm in a 2019 pre-Raven Model S today. I see comments about refresh but I can't think of what a refresh would look like when the new 2021 Mercedes Benz S-Class is taking design cues from today's Model S.

For me, the 520+ range is everywhere I need to go, round trip on a daily basis including our longest travel, a 2+ hour trip to our hometown in NY and back home to PA on the turnpikes without ever needing to stop to supercharge again.

As an all-around car, at 45 years of age for me, this Plaid may be the last car I feel I'd need to own... I have a 2015 S-Class Coupe that I was considering swapping for a 2021 sedan and most of that is because the sedan now feels more like a Tesla.. but with the Plaid coming, I can sell the S-Coupe and trade in the Model S I have now and I'm sailing into the sunset as close to Knight Rider than I ever thought I'd be

 

[jaguar36]

Ordering a car based on a mythical redesign that has been rumored for years now seems crazy to me. Particularly given the fact that even if it does happen (which I think is a long shot), there is no guarantee it will be better. If they did have a redesign in the works, why not at least hint at it during the presentation? They've already basically osboruned the S by having all the fancy new tech in the 3/Y and then talking up how much better the upcoming stuff is going to be.

Lastly its far from a guarantee that a redesign would be better. All of the cars Tesla have done since the S have been far uglier on the outside, and the whole tacked on single center screen thing on the inside they did on the 3 is awful. I would hope they don't try to do that on an S redesign but I wouldn't bet money on it either. There also isn't anything saying Tesla won't release the Plaid in the fall, and then 6 months later refresh the whole lineup. They've done things like that before as well.

 

[iqless]

Didn't they say there was basically going to be no redesign for the Plaid? Or did I misread the summary I read?

The 520 miles is just as mythical as the 500+ miles of the Roadster.

 

[AMPd]

I'm in a 2019 pre-Raven Model S today. I see comments about refresh but I can't think of what a refresh would look like when the new 2021 Mercedes Benz S-Class is taking design cues from today's Model S.

For me, the 520+ range is everywhere I need to go, round trip on a daily basis including our longest travel, a 2+ hour trip to our hometown in NY and back home to PA on the turnpikes without ever needing to stop to supercharge again.

As an all-around car, at 45 years of age for me, this Plaid may be the last car I feel I'd need to own... I have a 2015 S-Class Coupe that I was considering swapping for a 2021 sedan and most of that is because the sedan now feels more like a Tesla.. but with the Plaid coming, I can sell the S-Coupe and trade in the Model S I have now and I'm sailing into the sunset as close to Knight Rider than I ever thought I'd be

You think the model s will last you 20+ years? Either you’re joking or planning on dying before you hit retirement age.

 

[serendipitous]

Didn't they say there was basically going to be no redesign for the Plaid? Or did I misread the summary I read?

The 520 miles is just as mythical as the 500+ miles of the Roadster.

They didn't say anything either way. However, the order screen shows the same vehicle (what else would it show?), and the Laguna Seca teaser video shows the same car we saw last year (an S with wider fenders, a larger rear spoiler, and a larger front "intake"). People are reading a lot into those two things. Even if I get the prototype with today's interior, I'd be happy. If it's literally exactly the same, without the prototype's wider track/fenders, I'd probably hold off on completing my order.

I think the 520 miles is reasonable given that you can only pull so many C out of a battery pack - getting the kind of current they need (~900kW) would require a much larger pack, so the range is just a side effect. It's only 25% more range but it's 50% more power output - suggests new battery tech as well.

Again, all of this is likely "Pick the numbers now and figure out how to get there over the next 12-18 months" but at least it's a good target to shoot for

 

[Cheburashka]

I placed my order. I suspect a refresh will occur as well and that the car will be very different "under the hood," even if the exterior looks largely the same as it does today.

Not necessarily. The Ravens are pretty different under the hood - new motors and suspension components but they still designed it to fit into the existing body MS. No evidence the battery redesign would be any different.

 

[serendipitous]

Not necessarily. The Ravens are pretty different under the hood - new motors and suspension components but they still designed it to fit into the existing body MS. No evidence the battery redesign would be any different.

It's all speculation, but the Raven changes weren't major in the sense of fitting things in. It's fundamentally the same pack design and an identical form factor, the front motor is not substantially different packaging than the previous induction motor, and the suspension changes are limited to different shocks that are electronically controlled - the suspension geometry and overall frame is the same as it's always been. The Plaid specs require substantial changes to the rear motor packaging, substantial changes to battery cooling, and in my opinion, substantial changes to pack chemistry and probably even pack physical size. I'd be surprised if the current car's suspension geometry would allow the kind of track performance they've shown, too.

 

[jaguar36]

You think the model s will last you 20+ years? Either you’re joking or planning on dying before you hit retirement age.

This. The MCU in my 2017 is already basically unusable.

 

[2101Guy]

You think the model s will last you 20+ years? Either you’re joking or planning on dying before you hit retirement age.

or retiring early..

 

[lowtek]

The MCU in my 2017 is already basically unusable.

Curious, what makes it unusable?

 

[BigNick]

The 1,100hp could be the same trick as P85D 691hp turned out to be. Tesla will tell people power update will come over-the-air, then couple of years later admit that only some parts of the car are capable of 1,100hp, but as sold it will only ever produce up to 737hp. Of course that is if 1,100hp even survives Elon's "I want to beat Lucid" wish spec to actual production car. Lots of things Elon said in the past for future products never materialized.

I don’t trust Tesla won’t overcommit on these new battery packs in both range and performance, only to gimp them hard later.

This gimping of packs should have a name. I propose it be called “85ing”.

 

[lowtek]

These are definitely not 20 year cars. I'm a huge Tesla, SpaceX and Elon fan, but common sense prevails ... Tesla isn't going to sell you a forever car, why would they?