The Tesla P100D Has Landed. 0-60 In 2.5 Seconds

The second worst kept secret in the automotive universe is that that Tesla has been working on a 100 kWh battery. The first worst kept secret is that Apple is planning to build an electric car. Today, August 23, 2016 at 12:00 pm Pacific Daylight Time, Tesla thrilled all its faithful followers with the official announcement that a performance version of its Model S sedan and Model X SUV with dual motors is now available.

Here is the announcement in full. Cue the fanfare of trumpets.

The Model S P100D with Ludicrous mode is the third fastest accelerating production car ever produced, with a 0-60 mph time of 2.5* seconds. However, both the LaFerrari and the Porsche 918 Spyder were limited run, million dollar vehicles and cannot be bought new. While those cars are small two seaters with very little luggage space, the pure electric, all-wheel drive Model S P100D has four doors, seats up to 5 adults plus 2 children and has exceptional cargo capacity.

The 100 kWh battery also increases range substantially to an estimated 315 miles on the EPA cycle and 613 km on the EU cycle, making it the first to go beyond 300 miles and the longest range production electric vehicle by far.

The larger battery pack is also available on the Model X, making the world’s quickest SUV even faster. Model X P100D with Ludicrous mode accelerates to 60 mph in 2.9* seconds and travels up to 289 miles EPA estimated and 542 km EU on a single charge. Model X is also a pure electric SUV and can seat up to seven adults.

Model S and Model X are engineered to be the safest cars on the road and to have the highest ratings from NHTSA. Both have access to the Tesla Supercharger network for the freedom to travel long distance for free. And every Tesla will improve over time with free over the air upgrades.

Tesla customers who have ordered a P90D Ludicrous, but not taken delivery, can upgrade to the 100 kWh pack for $10,000. Existing P90D Ludicrous owners can also upgrade to a 100 kWh pack, but for $20,000, as their used 90 kWh pack will have to be recycled.

While the P100D Ludicrous is obviously an expensive vehicle, we want to emphasize that every sale helps pay for the smaller and much more affordable Tesla Model 3 that is in development. Without customers willing to buy the expensive Model S and X, we would be unable to fund the smaller, more affordable Model 3 development.

* Expected value using max power mode and Motor Trend benchmark

Note that Motor Trend uses the one foot roll out procedure common in drag racing when measuring a car’s maximum acceleration.

The world of Tesla is aquiver with excitement. Just imagine. If you already own a newish Model S p90D with Ludicrous Mode, your car already hauls to 60 in 2.65 seconds, according to Drag Times. But now, for a paltry $20,000 more, you can upgrade to a P100D and shave 1.5 tenths of a second off that time. If that doesn’t peg your giggle meter, it’s hard to imagine what would.

Source: Tesla Motors

Drag Race: Tesla Model S vs. Boeing 737 - VIDEO

Presented here, for your consideration, is a video of a Tesla racing a commercial airliner. I suspect you’ll like it, though, because if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my time here at Gas 2, it’s this: people love to watch videos of the ludicrously fast Tesla Model S.

Whether it’s racing against a Dodge Hellcat, a Chevy Corvette, or even a heavily-modified Ford GT, the Tesla consistently out-performs most people’s expectations. Especially off the line. In this video, though, the challenger is a bit different- mainly because the cars mentioned, above, top out at around 200 MPH … and, at 200 MPH, the Qantas Air Boeing 737 is just getting started!

The video, shown below, is little more than a blatant attempt by Australian airline Qantas to hop onto the Tesla hype train while also promoting itself as some sort of green, sustainable airline. I’m not sure they’re any more “sustainable” than any other bio-fuel running Boeing customer, but it’s a super fun video either way. Check it out, below, then let us know what you think of Qantas’ attempt to get some Tesla-driven PR in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

Qantas 737 vs. Tesla Model S

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Source | Images: Qantas Air, via Amped.

The Tesla Roadster Turns Ten This Year

Set your way back machines to 2006, boys and girls, and enjoy this video reveal of the Tesla Roadster. The first thing you might notice is the poor quality of the video. Did we imagine back then that cameras would exist in a few short years that would make self driving cars possible? Heck, most of us thought Netscape was a leading tech company and was a good investment! Goes to show how much we knew, huh?

The Tesla Roadster came about because an engineer named Martin Eberhard thought electric cars would be a good way to wean the world off fossil fuels for its transportation needs. Even though the people at the head of the country have changed, that basic principle remains at the core of everything Tesla Motors does. At the unveiling, Eberhard told AutoBlog Green, “You can have a car that’s quick and you can have a car that’s electric. Having one that’s both is how you make electric cars popular.”

That statement was prescient. At the time, electric cars were little more than glorified golf karts. Eberhard knew instinctively that people love high performance vehicles. Even after he an Elon Musk had a falling out about how to move the company forward, that understanding remained at the heart of the succession of Tesla products that have made headlines — the Model S 85+, the S P85,  P85D, P85D with Insane Mode, and the latest full bore nutso car from Tesla, the P90D with Ludicrous Mode.

These cars that have appeared in hundreds of YouTube videos drag racing against everything from polo ponies to race prepped Ferraris and ignited a storm of enthusiasm for electric cars. If the Tesla Model S had the same acceleration as a Chevy Malibu, Tesla would have missed out on at least 50% of the favorable publicity it has enjoyed over the years.

Tesla founders Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning are still working in the EV industry. Recently they made a major investment in Alta Motors, makers of Redshift electric motorcycles. Ian Wright now makes the world’s most efficient electric garbage trucks. He thought Musk was wrong to pursue electric automobiles when diesel trucks are such a major source of carbon pollution. Only technical chief JB Straubel remains from the original Tesla team.

It is worthwhile to look back at the Tesla Roadster, if only to mark how far the electric car industry has come in ten short years. Who would have thought the day the Roadster first appeared that Elon Musk would be talking about cars that can drive themselves cross country a decade later? The changes between then and now have been dramatic, but the core principal of Tesla Motors remains the same — to lead the world to a fossil fuel free future, regardless of what the Kook Brothers may say.

Tesla Model S P90D vs. Heffner Ford GT (w/ Video)

We’ve seen the super-fast Tesla Model S P90D take on a number of other fast cars in the past, but- somehow- the act never gets old. Here we see the Ludicrous speed Tesla line up alongside Ford’s premier supercar, the LeMans-inspired Ford GT.

This isn’t a run-of-the-mill Ford GT that the Tesla is taking on, however. This one’s been tuned by legendary Ford tuner Jason Heffner to put out more than 700 HP. With an all-time quickest run of 10.6 @ 133 MPH at Palm Beach International Raceway’s 1/4 mile drag strip, the Ford GT seems (on paper) to stack up pretty well against the 10.9 second Tesla.

That paper stuff, though- boy, that’s a tricky thing! Out on real-world streets (presumably out in Mexico, somewhere), the powerful, lightweight Ford GT has a bit of trouble putting its prodigious power to the ground. The all-wheel drive Tesla, however?

Watch the video for yourselves, then let us know what you think of the Tesla’s “ludicrous” performance in the comments section at the bottom of the page. And, Ford guys, you’ll want to wear your flame suits for this one- trust me!

Source | Images: Dragtimes.

Elon Musk Takes Journalist on Gigafactory Tour

Fast Company’s Max Chafkin is the only journalist who has had a tour of the sprawling, NetZero Tesla Gigafactory by Elon Musk, personally. On the ride to the factory from Reno, Musk told him the scale of the place is overwhelming. “It will blow your mind,” he tell Chafkin. “You see it in person and then realize, ‘F*ck, this is big’.” He wasn’t kidding. Chafkin says the place is enormous in a way that defies description.  It is so long, it has to be broken up into four distinct structures with four different foundations so that an earthquake won’t destroy the whole thing.

That’s how the place looks today, when it has only 1.9 million square feet of space. Tesla has announced recently that it has scaled up the completed size of its battery factory from a planned 10 million square feet to 13.9 million square feet. That will make it one of the largest buildings on earth. It will be so large, in fact, it will be 1/3 the size of a full moon and be visible from the International Space Station with the unaided eye.

Why will the Gigafactory be so huge? Part of the answer is that Tesla is not a car company that also happens to manufacture batteries. If you listen carefully to what Musk says, Tesla is a battery company that also happens to make cars.

Right now, if Tesla bought every electric vehicle battery made in the world, there would only be enough to power about 100,000 cars. His plan is to make five times that many cars — and soon. “So it’s either build a whole bunch of little factories or one big factory. And a whole bunch of little factories sounds like quite a bother. Why not just have one big one and maximize your economies of scale?” Why not, indeed? Those economies of scale are what will drive down the cost of batteries and make the more affordable Tesla Model 3 possible.

When Chafkin asked Musk why he didn’t just let Panasonic or LG Chem build the batteries Tesla needs, Musk says, “It’s hard to convince people from consumer industries that you’re going to make 15 times as many cars as you’re currently making. That sounds pretty implausible. We just had to say we’re going to do it, and you’re either on the ride or you’re not.”

Then Musk focused on some of his long term aspirations. “The goal has not been: Let’s make cars,” he said. “The goal has been: We need to accelerate the advent of sustainable energy.” He thinks using solar power to charge batteries during the day so people and companies can use that energy later when the sun goes down is a no brainer. “It’s pretty obvious really,” Musk says. “In fact, that’s what my 9-year-old said: ‘It’s soooo obvious! Why is that even a thing?’ ” It’s not surprising that a child of Elon Musk might be a fairly precocious lad.

People need to understand that Musk’s commitment to sustainable energy goes much deeper than just making world class electric cars. “I think people should be a lot more worried than they are,” he says while explaining that the damage from high carbon dioxide levels won’t be felt be until at least 2035. “Life will continue, but it will be a train wreck in slow motion,” he says. “Millions of people will die; there will be trillions of dollars in damage—that sort of thing.”

To keep that from happening, Musk looks back at the Gigafactory taking shape around him and says, “We’re going to need probably…10 or 20 of these things.” But why him? Who appointed Elon Musk the savior of the planet?  “Somebody’s got to,” he shrugs.

Elon Musk Delivers a 10 Second Car: Tesla Model S P90D

The new Ludicrous Mode enabled Tesla Model S P90D apparently managed to do 0–60 mph in just 2.6 seconds on its way to an astonishing 10.9 second 1/4 mile pass during recent testing by Motor Trend, according to reports. That kind of performance puts the big Tesla sedan on par with just about anything on wheels in the Fast and Furious franchise!

The news was noteworthy enough that Tesla CEO Elon Musk himself felt the need to share a link to the article via Twitter. Going from a dead standstill to 60 mph in just 2.6 seconds is rather ridiculous, to be fair. So why not brag about it?

Elon Musk 

✔@elonmusk

Model S Ludicrous Mode achieves 2.6 sec 0-60 mph and 10.9 sec 1/4 mile in Motor Trend test http://m.motortrend.com/roadtests/sedans/2015-tesla-model-s-p90d-ludicrous-upgrade-first-test-review/??sm_id=social_aumomotortrendhub_MotorTrend_20151028_54607566&adbid=659489836311556096&adbpl=tw&adbpr=25383000 …

9:33 PM - 28 Oct 2015

 
•  1,2751,275 Retweets
 
•  2,0902,090 favorites

The Motor Trend coverage of the new Tesla offering is rather fun overall, so I recommend heading over there if you have time to read the full article. If not, here are some of the highlights (in my opinion):

Stop what you’re doing right now. Stop texting. Get off YouTube, close Facebook, and pause for a moment so you can truly appreciate the times we’re living in, a world where if you have the means you can go out and buy an American-made, 762-hp, all-wheel-drive electric car that’s as capable of driving itself as it is smoking supercars off the line. That car is the new Ludicrous-enhanced 2015 Tesla Model S P90D.
As fabulous as Tesla’s new semi-autonomous autopilot feature is, the 762-hp Model S P90D is a car that begs to be driven. The P90D starts life as an already-insane Model S P85D but with the P85D’s 221-hp front and 470-hp rear (691 hp combined) motors swapped for a front motor that makes 259 hp and 244 lb-ft of torque and a rear motor that produces 503 hp and 469 lb-ft of torque. Total output is 762 hp and 713 lb-ft of torque.
Hold those horses, though; to get the most out of your P90D — and to get something less Insane and a little more Ludicrous — you’ve got to drop a cool $10,000 on the Ludicrous Speed upgrade. The upgrade adds a couple of pieces of hardware to the P90D, including main battery pack contacts made of Inconel (a “space-grade super alloy”) that allows Tesla to increase the current flow rate from 1,300 to 1,500 amps, and an advanced new fuse for the 90-kW-hr battery. This fuse has its own electronics and a tiny lithium-ion battery built into it that allows Tesla to better bridge the gap between a Model S’ normal operating current and max current. In plain English, it gives the motors access to more of the battery’s power and does it faster, without risk of the fuse being blown.

As noted in the Motor Trend coverage, amongst all of the many, many vehicles tested by Motor Trend, only two can beat the P90D outright in a 0–60 miles per hour sprint- and both of those are hybrids. The Porsche 918 Spyder, which carried a $845,000 starting price when it was still being produced, and Ferrari’s unbranded LaFerrari at around $2 million US.

One final note: as tested by Motor Trend, the P90D very reliably does a quarter-mile in just 10.9 seconds. That’s quite an advertising statement on its own, isn’t it? Here’s a final quote:

Although the Tesla Model S generally specializes in short sprints that are perfectly suited for metered freeway on-ramps, it’s also a capable drag racer. With a full charge, the P90D reliably rips through the quarter mile in 10.9 seconds, hitting 122.7 mph. Those numbers make the EV the fastest four-door sedan we’ve ever tested, besting both the mighty 707-hp Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat and the Audi RS 7 at the strip. The P90D is a supercar beater, too, beating the Porsche 911 Turbo S and Nissan GT-R NISMO (among others) through the quarter mile, though in sprints much longer than that, the Porsche will walk away as the Model S nears its 155 mph top speed.

Who Wins: Tesla Model S, or V8 Supercar?

Here in the Land of the Free and the Home of the absolutely Ludicrous Tesla Model S sedan, we already know that it’s best to just take your expensive man toys at home when a Tesla rolls up to the line next to you. Failure to do so will leave even the most powerful muscle cars looking foolish, but what happens when you line up a Model S alongside an honest-to-goodness race car?

That’s what the guys over at Australia’s Car Advice wanted to find out, so they brought a race-ready V8 Supercars spec. Holden to a closed racetrack, and lined it up alongside a freshly charged up Tesla Model S on full insanity mode.

You can probably guess what happens next, but try to pretend you’re surprised when you leave us a comment about the video in the comments section at the bottom of the page. And, since this is a post about Tesla, be sure to wear a flame suit if you mention the Model X or TSLA delivery figures for 2015. Trust me, you’ll need it!

Source | Images: Car Advice’ YouTube Channel.