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The Tesla Model S is a very complete luxury performance EV, but to create something very special, its American manufacturer has added more power to create this top Plaid version - a Model S that has gained extra speed without really sacrificing anything. It has 1,020hp, goes 200mph, gets to 62mph in under 2 seconds and costs a fraction over £100,000. The best electric car yet? Possibly. The fastest? For now, certainly.
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Detailed ratings
Luxury Full Electric Cars
Background
Tesla specialises in going against convention. And with this car, the Model S Plaid, it does so once more. It's 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.
The designation 'Plaid' comes 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 aims to offer exactly that, though disappointingly, it's only offered in our market with left hand drive. In compensation though, it's claimed to be the fastest-accelerating production car in the world.
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Range data
| Min | Max |
| Price | 101990 | 101990 |
| Insurance group 1-50 | 50 | 50 |
| Max Speed (mph) | 200 | 200 |
| 0-62 mph (s) | 1.99 | 1.99 |
| Min | Max |
| Electric WLTP-Rated Driving Range (miles) | 373 | 373 |
| Boot Capacity (l) | 793 | 1645 |
| Power (ps) | 1020 | 1020 |
| Torque (lb ft) | 1420 | 1420 |
Driving experience
If like Elon Musk, you're the kind of person for whom too much is never enough, then only the top tri-motor Plaid version of the Model S will do. Musk once promised us there'd be an even faster Plaid+ variant (subsequently cancelled) and it's hard to imagine how fast that would have been because this ordinary Plaid is in every way extra-ordinary against the stopwatch. An extra motor added onto the rear axle boosts total power output to an astonishing 1,020hp, split roughly 30/70 between the front and rear axle. There's a 421hp motor at the front and two 414hp motors at the rear, these altogether generating a scarcely believable 1,420Nm of torque on tap. As a result, Tesla claims a 0-60mph time of just 1.99 seconds, which (should you be able to replicate it) would make this the world's fastest-accelerating production car. Top speed is 200mph. The only car with four or five seats that can get remotely close to this kind of pace is Porsche's Taycan Turbo GT - and that's vastly more expensive.
For this kind of acceleration, you need to engage the car's provided 'Drag Strip' drive mode, which sets the car into what Tesla calls its 'Cheetah Stance', lowering the front to combat front end lift, giving the front motor the best chance of getting its torque to the tarmac. You'd hardly ever bother with that unless you were engaging in tyre-smoking test track heroics, nor would you usually concern yourself with the provided 'Track' drive setting or the system the car offers to vary the AWD set-up's torque split from front to rear. So it's good to know that even in its more ordinary public road-orientated sporty drive modes, this car remains frantically fast. Engage 'Plaid' and 60mph flashes by in 2.7s; in 'Sport' (which you'll prefer because it gives you a bit more throttle travel to play with) the sprint time is 3.7s - which is still quicker than say, Ford's fastest production model, the Mach-E GT. It's a bit of a different story if you stick to the more normal 'Chill' drive setting you'll need to get anywhere near this Model S Plaid's quoted EV drive range figure of 373 miles (21 miles less than the ordinary Dual Motor version). With 'Chill' engaged in a Model S Plaid, 60mph takes 7.3s.
Stick to the fast modes and the reality of this car's performance is difficult to accurately share: there's a rollercoaster-like 'strap-in and hold-on' vibe, with instant urge that means overtakes don't really need to be planned - they just happen. And when the road opens up and your right foot flexes, the horizon streams towards you as if on fast-forward, reminding you that the Model S Plaid still holds the coveted Nurburgring Nordschliefe lap record for an electric production car.
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Design and build
Very little differentiates the look of this top Plaid variant from a standard Model S Dual Motor derivative - which means it shares all the changes recently 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 (though you can add rims of that size to the Dual Motor version) but on the Plaid, they come with red brake calipers.
There aren't really any Plaid identifying changes within this Model S's completely updated interior, which unfortunately seats you on the wrong side of the cabin thanks to this car's new-found left hand drive-only production format. There's the weirdest steering wheel we've ever seen, a yoke-style tiller cut in half like the tiller from a space ship - though a conventional wheel is available as an alternative. This 17-inch landscape-format central screen was introduced as part of the most recent set of Model S updates. One change we'd expected that hasn't happened is that there's still a separate instrument screen ahead of you; on smaller Teslas, drive instruments are confined to the near side of the central monitor.
In true Tesla fashion, it's very minimalistic - even more so now that the brand has done away with the column stalks previously 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 now 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 used to be 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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Market and model
The price of this car has varied quite a lot since it was first introduced. As we filmed in early Spring 2024, it was pitched at around £102,000, around £15,000 more than the standard Dual Motor version, though for most customers, monthly payment stats will be more relevant as they'll be taking ownership of a lease deal. It's worth mentioning that at the time of filming, it wasn't possible to custom-order a Model S of any kind in the UK. Instead, you had to go to the Tesla website and pick from an 'Inventory' of completely new cars, though there's a reasonable number to choose from.
As for rivals for a Model S Plaid, well it's no longer quite true to say that there's nothing like it; Porsche's Taycan Turbo GT gets within a whisker of this top Tesla's thrilling performance - but will cost you vastly, vastly more. Supposedly very fast segment competitors like the Mercedes-AMG EQE 4MATIC+ and the Audi RS e-tron aren't really in the same performance ballpark, but cost more anyway.
If having considered all of that and tried this car to make sure you're not put off by the left hand drive format, if you're still interested, you'll want to know about standard kit - and about the specification options, so let's look at that now. The specification bit isn't too difficult. At the time of filming, there were just two exterior paint colour choices ('Solid Black' or 'Deep Blue Metallic') - and three interior colour shades (most of the inventory cars come cabin-finished in either cream or all-black trim). You can choose between the Yoke steering wheel - or stick with a conventional one. And there are 21-inch wheels.
Standard of course is the usual high level of Tesla media tech, accessible via the car's huge 17-inch centre touchscreen. This is your access point for a built-in 22-speaker 960-watt audio system, Google Maps navigation system, a web browser and streaming services, plus you can access various apps like Spotify, though Tesla still refuses to build in 'Apple CarPlay' or 'Android Auto'.
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Cost of ownership
This top Model S Plaid version's 373 mile range figure is way better than that of a comparably-priced Mercedes-AMG EQE 53 4MATIC+ (291 miles) and also looks good against its nearest-performing direct rival, Porsche's Taycan Turbo GT (345 miles), though it's worth mentioning that an ordinary Taycan Turbo would take you 394 miles. As with any EV, what you get from this Tesla in the real world is of course another question. On this test with this Plaid version, we've been getting regular consumption of around 3.1mp/kWh, which translates into a range of just over 300 miles. Which isn't really that much better than we were getting from this car back when we originally tested it in 2013, despite the larger, more efficient battery, the sleeker aerodynamics (0.208Cd is industry-leading) and the weight savings that Tesla's tried to make (this Plaid version, for instance, weighs 45kgs less - 2,162kgs - than the 'Performance' model it replaced).
What about charging? Well a fast DC public charging point would replenish the 100kWh battery (95kWh of which is usable) from 10-80% in 30 minutes - or from 10-90% in 38 minutes. Obviously, most of your charging with this car will be done at home, once you've had fitted the 7.4kW wallbox that you couldn't really own this car without. Home charging with this car from empty to full takes 15 hours 15 minutes. If your home (or business) has an 11kW three-phase supply, you could cut that time down to around ten hours.
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Summary
Tesla's aim with this Model S Plaid was to create the world's fastest-accelerating production vehicle. And at the time of this Review, this brand still - just about - held on to that title with this car. What we can say is that if you're to even approach the level of performance that's on offer here, you'll need to spend vastly more. Which may be compensation for the disappointing realisation for UK customers that there's no right hand drive version.
You could argue that this top Plaid variant answers a question that few were asking when it first arrived. But you could also say that of the Model S itself. A car that's gone on to be an industry game-changer. In this form, it's a fully-fledged super saloon, with the ability to carry the whole family at uber-rapid journey speeds even when a light dusting of snow falls. Add in the 373-mile range and you're left with what might just still be the most desirable electric super saloon to date.
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