The Palladium refresh was announced in January 2021 with initial deliveries in June 2021. The refresh included a new interior, new powertrain, suspension and thermal management amongst other improvements. The refresh originally consisted of three models, the Long Range (LR), the Plaid, and the Plaid+, although the Plaid+ was cancelled shortly before deliveries began. The “Plaid” name is applied to the performance model and is a reference to the only speed faster than “Ludicrous” in the movie Spaceballs.
The Plaid model includes one motor for the front axle and two motors for the rear axle; its starting price was $131,100. At the core of the Plaid’s performance are innovative new motors featuring a carbon-wrapped rotor to allow much higher motor RPM. Musk said that this presented challenges, because carbon and copper (the rotor material) have different thermal expansion rates. The Long Range model includes the front motor and a single rear motor; its starting price was $80k, but it was raised to $85k soon after deliveries began. “Track Mode” allows for adjustment from 100% FWD to 100% RWD in 5% increments, traction control strength in 21 stages and regenerative braking strength from 0% to 100% in 5% increments.
At its debut, the Palladium models had the lowest drag coefficient of any production car, with Cd=0.208. The new HVAC system uses a heat pump that Tesla says provides 30% longer range and requires 50% less energy in cold weather conditions than the previous Model S. Charging was said to increase by 187 miles (301 km) in 15 minutes (on a 250 kW Supercharger). The interior features a non-circular “yoke” steering wheel, a landscape-oriented center screen, a screen for the rear passengers, increased headroom and legroom, particularly in the rear seat area, lower noise via acoustic glass, a new, customizable user interface, and improved gaming (via the AMD RDNA 2 GPU). The company estimated that deliveries will reach 1000/week in Q3 of 2021.
The Plaid has 1,020 horsepower (760 kW) and 1,050 pound-feet (1,420 Nā m) of torque. It was independently tested by Motor Trend to go 0ā60 mph (0ā97 km/h) in 2.07 seconds (1.98 on a prepped drag strip, ex. with PJ1 TrackBite) and cover a quarter-mile (400 m) in 9.34 seconds at 152.2 mph (244.9 km/h). Tesla said it will reach a 200 mph (320 km/h) top speed.
