Tesla debuts Model S plaid at delivery event, as questions loom over Cybertruck,...
source link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/06/10/tesla-elon-musk-delivery-event/
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Tesla is debuting the quickest-ever production car. But the question looms: Can Elon Musk still deliver?
Fans have been clamoring for updates on Tesla’s Cybertruck, Semi and Roadster, the company’s most anticipated upcoming releases
SAN FRANCISCO — Tesla is set Thursday night to deliver what it says is the world’s quickest car available for purchase, in an event likely to be just as notable for what it would not include.
Fans have been clamoring for updates on Tesla’s Cybertruck, Semi and Roadster, the company’s most anticipated upcoming releases — all of which were set for 2020 or 2021 debuts on their earlier timelines. But the promises have not materialized as the company has struggled with its characteristic overpromising.
“I think maybe as just a general rule with Tesla: regardless of what they say they’re over-optimistic on when it’s going to be available,” said Gene Munster, managing partner at the venture capital firm Loup Ventures, who added that the company “eventually delivers.”
Instead this week, fans were treated to a classic Elon Musk diversion: Tesla said it will no longer build its fully featured, premier Model S, dubbed the Plaid Plus.
The car’s nickname is an apparent reference to the movie “Spaceballs,” a space parody movie where the stars brightly streak past as the spaceship enters “Ludicrous” speed, the velocity eventually represented by an equally ridiculous pattern: Plaid.
The Plaid Plus was supposed to be the top-end luxury sedan offered by the company. The less expensive Model S Plaid, he argued in a tweet, delivered good enough performance to render its counterpart unnecessary. Both would be luxury sport sedans well out of the price range of the typical consumer, exceeding $100,000, unlike the more mass-market-aimed Cybertruck and the more popular Tesla Model 3 and Model Y.
“Plaid+ is canceled. No need, as Plaid is just so good,” wrote Musk, in a surprise to fans, as he simultaneously announced that the Model S Plaid would hit the road this week.
To be sure, the Plaid promises to be a groundbreaking sedan, with sub-two-second zero-to-60 speeds making it the world’s quickestproduction car when it debuts, if Tesla’s figures hold up. It promises a 390-mile range and more than 1,000 horsepower, propelling it to speeds up to 200 mph, though it’s unclear whether the car would actually reach those speeds in the variation being delivered to consumers. It’s listed at about $130,000 on Tesla’s website, before potential savings such as government incentives.
But the cancellation of the Plaid Plus, which was set at about $150,000, came as a disappointment to many who awaited its promised 520-mile range and new battery technology, announced in a similar presentation in September. And the company has been mum on specifictimelines for its debut pickup, the Cybertruck, its sports car, the Roadster, and its long-haul truck, the Tesla Semi. Musk said in a tweet in January that production for the Roadster would begin next year.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jerome Guillen, the head of Tesla Heavy Trucking, left the company on June 3, Tesla announced in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this week, raising questions about the status of that project.
On social media, Tesla superfans and casual observers alike have sought an update on Tesla’s futuristic pickup, which Tesla originally said was slated for production this year. Munster said Tesla risks letting the competition catch up to it, especially after Ford announced its F-150 Lightning electric pickup to great fanfare last month.
The cancellation of the Plaid Plus means Tesla will miss an opportunity to debut its new 4680 battery cell, the advanced battery composition it announced at a presentation last September. The Plaid Plus was set to include the new cell, which would be more densely packed and provide 16 percent more range, Tesla said in September, with power and energy outputs far higher than today’s batteries are capable of.
When it comes to product announcements, “you have to translate what Tesla says,” Munster said. “Most things are going to take longer than you think, but eventually they’re going to get there.”
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