Elon Musk took to the stage from the parking lot of a Tesla factory in California on Tuesday afternoon.
On Tesla's Battery Day 2020, the EV maker made two major announcements: a new Plaid powertrain for the Model S and a $25,000 Tesla.
Let’s look at what Tesla has to offer in these two advancements.
Tesla Model S Plaid
As part of the battery day presentation, Elon Musk showed the new version of the company’s flagship sedan.
The Model S with Plaid powertrain, a step up from its Ludicrous model, boasts of travelling at least 520 miles on a single charge. The powertrain produces 1100 horsepower, can go from 0 to 60 in under two seconds, and achieves a top speed of 200 mph.
The new Plaid powertrain is equipped with three motors, one more than Tesla’s current S and X models. All these features result in a faster, longer-range and a more expensive version of the model S.
The model will be available for delivery in late 2021.
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Musk had tweeted in September 2019 about Plaid, saying that the production of the high-performing vehicle would start in about a year. He added that the model would cost more than the current offerings.
The company has been testing the model for some time now; and Musk had showed a video of a Tesla Plaid Powertrain at the Laguna Seca raceway, completing a lap in 1 minute and 30 seconds, an improvement of six seconds from its debut last September.
A $25,000 Tesla Promise
Elon Musk has outlined plans to build a cheap electric car with low-cost batteries, and to turn Tesla into a world’s largest automaker. He promised a $25,000 Tesla electric car that would be available in about three years.
If successful, it would be much cheaper than any other Tesla car. Currently, Tesla’s cheapest model is Tesla 3 which was priced at $35,000 during its release in February 2019.
Musk said the cheaper version of the car would be capable of driving fully autonomously. However, the task might not be an easy one for Tesla since the sensors required for even partly autonomous vehicles are expensive.
During the on-stage presentation, Musk noted that company’s fully-autonomous driving software experienced unforeseen challenges, that led to a fundamental rewrite of the entire software stack. He did not mention the time line of the problem.
Recently, Consumer Reports, a US-based non-profit organisation, denied Tesla’s claim of including all hardware necessary for autonomous driving.
