Global electric vehicle (EV) market leader Tesla briefed investors and analysts during its online Q2 2021 update last week. The electric vehicle and energy company gave an update on financials, but top execs also provided an inside look at a product roadmap focused on the rapidly expanding portfolio that includes a new Model Y and big plans related to production, vehicle technology, and battery advances.
Closer to reality, Tesla’s attention is focused on ramping up production in Freemont of its new flagships—its revamped Model S—and Model X soon after. In June, the company held the delivery event for the first significant update to its groundbreaking Model S, the new high-performance Plaid version, at the test track of the company’s main factory in Fremont, CA
Kicking off that event was Franz von Holzhausen, Senior Design Executive at Tesla Motors.
“Almost nine years ago, on June 22nd, 2012, we had our first Model S delivery event right over there in the factory,” he said. “So, we’ve come a long way in a few years.”
“With the new car, we set out to design engineer and manufacture the best car on the planet,” he added.
Tesla’s high-profile CEO, Elon Musk, picked up the theme, saying “that it is quite important to the future of sustainable energy to show that an electric car is the best car, hands down.”
Tesla has made significant improvements from the original car launched in 2012. The top P85 version accelerated from 0-60 mph (0-97 km/h) in 4.2 s and had a range of 265 mi (426 km). For the 2021 Plaid version, Tesla promises a 0-60 mph sprint in 1.99 s (with rollout subtracted) and an EPA estimated range of 396 mi (637 km).
“No production car has ever done zero to sixty in under two seconds,” said Musk. “And this is a four-door car that seats five adults.”
The new car’s tri-motor powertrain’s 1020-hp (760-kW) peak power can also produce a best quarter-mile acceleration time of 9.23 s, with a 155-mph (249-km/h) trap speed, and a top speed of 200 mph (321 km/h) when equipped with proper wheels and tires—available in fall 2021.
Overcoming a challenge of the previous car, that performance will be more repeatable thanks to a radiator twice as big for heat rejection.
“You’ll be able to actually do back-to-back 0-60s on the track [and] just haul ass,” said Musk. “I think we got to take this back to Nurburgring, let’s see what happens.”
New motors and batteries
To sustain the high-speed rotation integrity of the electric traction motors at 200 mph vehicle speeds, they get new carbon-wrapped rotors.
“This is the first time that, to the best of our knowledge, there’s been a production electric motor that has a carbon over-wrapped rotor,” said Musk. “This is a super hard thing to do. Carbon and copper have very different rates of thermal expansion. To do a carbon overwrapped rotor you’ve got to wind it at extremely high tension. We actually had to design the machine that makes the rotor.”
Musk added that, with the new technology, it means the electromagnetic field can be super-efficient and maintain a tight gap even at super-high rpm: “It goes up to 20,000 rpm and maybe a little more.”
The car gets an all-new slightly smaller battery pack with the company’s new 4680 cells.
Supercharging speed has also been improved. The maximum power the car can handle is bumped to 250 kW and the maximum charge rate can net 187 mi (300 km) of range in just 15 min.
When Tesla first delivered the Model S in 2012, there were no Superchargers anywhere in the world. Now, around the world there are 25,000 Superchargers, the network continually growing and getting incremental increases in charging power.
Musk pledged to keep improving the network “so that you can basically travel anywhere you want with peace of mind.” He also said Tesla will keep increasing the power of the Superchargers beyond the current 250 kW to “280, 300, 350.”
Updated body design
The body’s design was tweaked a bit, mostly in a bid to improve efficiency. The car’s already aerodynamic body was improved further and now has a class-leading drag coefficient of 0.208 Cd—which is about the same as that of the new fully electric Mercedes-Benz EQS.
“We were able to achieve the lowest drag coefficient of any car ever made,” said Musk. “This is the true drag coefficient of the car including with wheels in motion.”
He says that some drag coefficients quoted are without the wheels moving—and that wheels cause “aero churn” and incremental drag.
Also enabling better vehicle efficiency is a new heat pump for the car’s HVAC system, which gives 30% better cold-weather range and requires 50% less energy for cabin heating in freezing conditions, so there is less degradation due to cold weather.
In addition, Musk said that Tesla has engineered the Model S for maximum safety, the aspiration for the car (still to be confirmed by the U.S. NHTSA) is to get the lowest probability of injury of any car ever tested. He showed a chart with “actual NHTSA probability-of-injury numbers” showing the top five cars ever tested all being Teslas.
Vehicle refinement was enhanced by using acoustic glass throughout the car, which was specially engineered for quieter highway driving at high speeds.
The total weight for the Plaid is just 4766 lb (2161 kg).
Interior redesign
The interior got a more thorough redesign, with a focus on more space, comfort, and better usability.
Designers made the instrument panel slimmer and thinner, which enabled them to move the front seats (which are now ventilated) forward to free up space for the rear. Combined with reduced trim, this enabled the back seat to be reclined more for better comfort.
The previous model’s back seat “is not amazing, but the new one is actually a legit back seat,” said Musk. Designers were able to keep cargo capacity the same, at a still class-leading 28 ft³ (792 L).
The orientation of the main central display screen mimics the Model 3 and Model Y, going from portrait to landscape so it’s easier to watch movies, commented Musk. The rear-seat passengers also get a screen on the back of the center console for entertainment and control.
Similar to Models 3 and Y, traditional air vents are replaced with “hidden vents” for “invisible AC” using intersecting variable-speed columns of air controlled by touchscreen gestures. Airflow is more diffuse for the tri-zone (front left and right, rear) system.
Front and rear passengers get dual inductive chargers for their mobile phones. A 36-W USB-C power supply can charge a laptop. The car can pair with multiple Bluetooth devices simultaneously, so multiple people can control music and play video games wirelessly and simultaneously.
The steering column is topped by a controversial yolk steering wheel for better visibility of the main screen and Autopilot.
“You can basically see the mind’s eye of the car,” said Musk.
Another controversial addition is the Auto Shift system, which eliminates the steering column stalks and decides what vehicle direction is required.
”I think, generally, all input is error,” said Musk. “If you have to do something that the car could have done already, that should be taken care of. The software should just do it… “You don’t have to [select] drive or anything like that. The car knows you want to drive. The Autopilot advanced driver assistance system knows where the obstacles are.
“Obviously, if there’s something in front of you, you want to go backward,” he explained. “And if there’s something in the back of it, you want to go [forward] most likely. It will adapt to your needs. If it sees that you’re always changing to reverse or forward in particular situations, it’ll try to remember that and geocode it to that location, so then you won’t have to do [it] in the future. It will just keep minimizing the amount of input that you need to do until the car just reads your mind. It’s gonna be great.”
Infotainment and UX
With the new interior, there was a big emphasis on state-of-the-art infotainment and a better UX (user experience).
“If you think about the future, where the car is often in Autopilot or Full Self Driving mode, then entertainment is going to become increasingly important,” said Musk. “So you’re going to want to watch movies, play games, use the Internet—things you want to do if you’re not driving.”
Better displays and sound combine for more of a home-theater experience so customers waiting in the car for Supercharging or other reasons can catch up on their favorite Netflix show, iTunes music, or YouTube videos—or play video games.
The infotainment system features a 17-in Cinematic Display touchscreen with 2200 x 1300 resolution and 60 frames/s for state-of-the-art games. Musk promised Sony Playstation 5-level performance for the system, demonstrating a live Cyberpunk game.
Tesla Audio designed the new software-defined sound system with a proprietary codec aimed at continuous improvements through OTA updates.
The new UI (user interface) has improved gestures and more customization. It is more easily reconfigurable, designed to feel more like a modern tablet or mobile phone. The UI can interface with a calendar, with a swipe down from navigate and the car can automatically figure out if the driver wants to go home, to work, or somewhere else—and generates the most probable route.
At the end of the Model S Plaid delivery presentation, the Tesla team delivered the first 25 cars.
“Basically we should be at several hundred cars per week soon, and a thousand cars a week probably next quarter,” said Musk.
The production ramp has been slower than expected. Time will tell.
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