Tesla cancels Plaid Plus for the Model S one year before being offered.
On Sunday, June 6th, Elon Musk announced that Tesla will no longer offer the Model S Plaid Plus, because “Plaid is just so good.”
Since 2019, Tesla has been hyping up the Model S Plaid and Elon Musk promised last month that deliveries of the model will happen on June 10th.
Model S Plaid delivery pushed to June 10. Needs one more week of tweak.
This car feels like a spaceship. Words cannot describe the limbic resonance.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 29, 2021
The difference between the Plaid Plus and Plaid, according to The Verge, is that the Plaid Plus has a range of 520 miles while Plaid gives the Model S a range of 390-412 miles, can reach a speed of 200 miles per hour, and can go from 0-60 in 2 seconds. Elon Musk added that the Model S Plaid is the “quickest production car ever made.” Another difference is that the Plaid Plus is $150,000, which is $30,000 more than the Plaid.
0 to 60mph in under 2 secs. Quickest production car ever made of any kind. Has to be felt to be believed.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 6, 2021
What may be the reason Tesla pulled the plug on the Model 3 Plaid Plus? According to the New York Post, it might be due to an industry-wide microchip shortage. Towards the end of May, prices increased after a shortage of “raw materials.” Elon Musk also confirmed this in a tweet last week.
“Our biggest challenge is supply chain, especially microcontroller chips. Never seen anything like it,” and that, “Fear of running out is causing every company to overorder – like the toilet paper shortage, but at epic scale. That said, it’s obviously not a long-term issue.”
Now, the option for Plaid Plus is grayed out on Tesla’s website. But it also says that Plaid Plus will be available in mid-2022. There may be a chance that Tesla will offer it in the future.