Tesla Model S plaid REVIEW with Autobahn (2023) – the hypercar from stock! 😱
Can an electric vehicle that is essentially from 2012 keep up with new modern competitors? I will tell you, the result will be very interesting. Welcome to the Tesla Model S in the updated or facelift version. And the Plaid Model here, the top sporty version. Around two seconds in the acceleration figure, over 1000 horsepower. It’s basically a hypercar from stock. Like 75 kilometers an hour… Holy! What the… 250 km/h. Oh my god! Thomas on Autogefuhl for you in 4K, Full Screen, Full Length. Let’s go! Here in the front, we can see a new lower part. Everything
from one piece. Also goes through right here. Also a little bit wider to house even wider tires. New headlamps here, LED. The daytime running light stays like this. And the air is being channeled through here, and also here, right there so for even more aerodynamics. It is one of the most aerodynamic cars overall. The length’s at 4.98 meters or 196 inches. And interesting that we now have a black styling all over the vehicle. That counts both for the normal Model S with dual motor, around three seconds acceleration figure, and also for the Plaid Model with
around two seconds in the acceleration figure. Rolling start, so a couple of 0.10s more from a standing still start. Yeah, Tesla is always cheating
more, you know, less expensive Model 3 which do not offer air suspension then. Here also, you know, very strong shoulder part. I really liked that. Or ‘hip’ part, you can also say that! And interesting that this Plaid Model here comes with three electric motors. So two at the rear, one for each wheel and that enables even better torque vectoring. If you put even wider tires and also retrofit carbon ceramic brakes, then it is possible to unlock the top speed to 320 kilometers an hour or 200 miles per hour. Where you want to drive that? Even
in Germany, come on! Well, but this one doesn’t have it. However, it is still extremely quick and fast in the top speed of the normal version, the normal ‘Plaid’ version. We will test today on the German autobahn. Let’s see later how fast that goes. In the rear, the typical Model S styling. However, a little bit more refined. Then here again with the black accentuations. That work very well, I think. And then here, you have this Plaid batch of this grid from SpaceBalls. I can just recommend watching it. One of my favorite of all times indeed.
It’s really so funny. And I actually watched it before watching the original Star Wars movies because my parents thought that I could take Spaceballs but it was too young to watch the real Star Wars movie because Jabba the Hutt should have been so frightening. Yeah. Interesting story from my childhood definitely. I love both Spaceballs and the original Star Wars. Not the very newest episodes though. Damn Disney! Back to the car. Then here, the carbon fiber lip. Really interesting. And carbon fiber’s also secret to the motors which are carbon wrapped and therefore can take these extreme
revolutions. Very interesting indeed. And news as for towing now, up to 1.6 tons. First time a Model S is also approved for towing. Not as much as the Model X, for example. That one would be at 2.25 tonnes towing capacity. The battery at 100 kWh net However, now with a heat pump. That means it will also have decent range in winter times. And a very realistic one indeed, because it’s so efficient. It is indeed 500 kilometers or 300 miles. Even better if your drive, you know, very, very optimized, and maybe worse when you hammer it
through all the way. But 500 kilometers or 300 miles is a very realistic range. And now as I said, even in winter times thanks to this new heat pump system. And recharging, about 250 kW DC peak at a supercharger. You open it right here. AC & DC, and you can charge 10% to 80% in less than 30 minutes. Moving towards the interior, you can see here flush door handles for better aerodynamics. But when we open the vehicle, here we go, they come out. And also door closing sound… It’s very solid although it’s a vehicle with
frameless doors. That’s pretty cool. Soft materials All animal-free, that’s so important. Carbon fiber insert. You now open the doors from here with this capacitive field. This is a nice gray fabric. The Scandinavian furniture design, I would call it. Then, Model S entry badge and a completely new yoke steering wheel. That means cut-off upper part. Really straight at the bottom. We’ll test today how that plays out in low and also high-speed driving. And the seats here, also completely redesigned. New ergonomics and also new surfaces. Now with perforation, and it’s really soft and plush here also on
the seating area as well all animal-free. So, a really great quality now also combinable once again with seat cooling. This reworked interior is really impressive indeed. How clean it looks. And then 17-inch screen. Now horizontal strech. And a very interesting thing is for sure this display tilt. I really prefer to have it like this then here while driving, just more towards me. But you can also put it stationary to the passenger side, that is possible. Maybe not the most used function. That you can see everything best on camera is of course at the center. By
the way, if you see any like, you know, colored irritations on the screen, that’s just on camera. Here on your own eye, everything’s really crisp. You can also get this satellite view and it’s really responsive. They’ve done a great job with the software, one of the leading systems for sure. And here, you can also go light or dark appearance. Or you can switch it to Auto. Then it appears according to the light sensors, for example. Suspension setting, you can also change here, Comfort, Auto, Sport, and Advanced. They can also adapt a little bit. So you
can change so much here. Also the ride height of the air suspension or just let everything control more automatically. Steering wheel, how much resistance you have, you can also change. So, so much things to change. Temperature unit’s here in the lower part or you can also set the voice control. “temperature 22 degrees” There we go. So this is also then a quick reaction. The keycard has to be placed right here for driving now, by the way. And the interesting thing is to start driving, they want you to do either here, ‘P’ or then here, slide
forward for the Drive mode or slide backward for Reverse. To have it here in the screen is somewhat irritating indeed. You get used to it but there’s no stock column for that left anymore. However, it can also be controlled here from this lower area. You can still press these buttons then, for examine, for Reverse, Neutral, or ‘D’ for the Drive one. I think it’s better to still have that. I still wonder why Tesla is reluctant to Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, but what is good that they have very two nice microfiber-covered inductive charging pads here
in the front. So, you two phones can also be together while being charged! There we go. So and then this area, carbon fiber cover. Nice that we don’t have high-gloss black piano lacquer or something. You slide open in here. Our Tesla Model X test vehicle, it didn’t work that well from build quality. But here you see, it’s actually fine. Goes forward, and then, like this. Half stop, and all the way back again. And then this one, cubbyhole. Slide open. Cupholders also somewhat adaptive. Could be a little bit better from the build quality here. Then, more
space underneath. Really here, this middle armrest, really good from build quality. It has been well attached now. And underneath, even more space. Digital instruments: clear to read, clear to see. And when you put it in the Drive mode, it looks like this. There’s your speed right there. And when you have a GPS route set actually, then also appears in the left part. I do have to continue. There we go. Start driving for that. Very interesting, the turning indicators are now at the steering wheel. Here, right or left. It is this capacitive thing however, but you
do get some kind of feedback. And you also see that when you use the turning indicators, you also get this kind of blind spot or turning camera here, right side and left side as an additional help in the infotainment system. And the sound system, 22 speakers now. Upgraded. And interesting is you can actually turn the immersive sound off, or then… put it higher. And this immersive sound is more like, three-dimensional sound and I really like it. Yeah, it’s a really cool sound for music lovers. Rear seating area, first of all, nice soft-touch materials here also
at the back part. Carbon fiber inserts. So the build quality really has been improved over the years with the Model S. That’s good to have. Like, a ‘refined’ model. It’s not all-new, but refined, refined, refined. Here, take a look at the interior. Also the same seating materials now with these perforated high-grade leatherette seats. Looks cool, feels cool. ISOFIX at the outside parts each. Yeah, it’s a long sedan or EV but what about the seating comfort and the legroom and so on? Well, as I’m driving here, hardly fits with legs. So, not really using the length
of the vehicle. And the comfort of the backseat, well, the seats themselves, they are way better now. However you see here how much space I have here. It’s really not something ideal for tall people in the back. As for the headroom with 1.89 meters or 6’2, it does work because of space underneath the glass roof. But again, it’s not ideal here for tall people when tall people are also driving. And since this is all EV, you don’t have like a middle tunnel here. But then again this middle seating here, it works with the legs maybe
here but this backpart here is kind of stiff. So it’s also not ideal to sit in the middle part here. Looking through the panoramic roof from here, that is actually quite cool. And, also with a new screen. Here, this is the new screen. Look at that. Here’s where you control the vents. Looks fancy. And it works actually quite well. No problem. Yeah, you don’t have this manual thing anymore. But that way, it’s a cleaner solution actually. And then you can also change the temperature right here. And you can also use it for streaming Netflix, Disney
Plus, YouTube. Yeah, this one has all the Star Wars now. We know it. But here, of course, best thing is to always use the YouTube search and put ‘Autogefühl’ You can also just say ‘uhl’ without the German umlaut, Then some suggestions. Or then, just pick your favorite Model name. For example, if you want to see the competitor like, EQE AMG. Like this, and then we directly get to our review. There we go. One of the competitors right here. And then you can also now stream that in your Tesla Model S. And, yeah… Please watch the
ads or go for YouTube Premium that we also can produce our videos even further. Oh yeah, Polestar 3, we will also come up with a review of that very shortly. Well about that Frunk? Yeah, there is one and also quite well usable one. Maybe for charging cables or for whatever you prefer. But definitely very well usable. You luggage will fly all over the place when you use this harsh Plaid acceleration. So let’s take a look at the trunk or the boot. So, here you have this cover. This nice microfiber. You can fold this up like
this or you can remove it completely. It’s both possible. The width here in the back part is, yeah, a little bit less than a meter or 40 inches, but bearing this. And wider here between the wheel arches. This is a very large opening then here for charging cables and everything. And you can see here, just luggage here that you can have approximately an understanding of how high it is. Even here underneath the cover, it’s no problem. As for the length, we can here unlock the seats. Or right there, but then we have to push them.
It’s a 1/3 – 2/3 split. And when we have pushed it all the way through, about 1.90 meters or 74 inches. That’s of course really massive. And what about the overall height right here? Almost 27 inches, a little bit less. Oh, that’s 68 centimeters. Here we are. German motorway! Tesla Model S Plaid, and acceleration from 100 km/h up to 200 km/h! That even created pressure on the inside of the ears. Still alive? Yeah. Talking about G force, that is definitely G force. Wow! Yeah, that’s even beyond ludicrous. Absolutely crazy and so effortless. And it’s really
planted on the ground. The air suspension gives us comfort. At the same time, it gives us also a sporty feeling of the vehicle. The steering wheel is very direct indeed. Kinda chrisp. You don’t have to do hectic steering… But yeah, you see? So it reacts to fine reactions so you don’t oversteer then on the motorway. Otherwise, you’re going all over the place here. So really be gentle with the steering and especially if you want to… don’t want to stress out the passengers too much, be also gentle with the throttle. And of course, in both ways
because the recuperation is also pretty strong is typical. It’s typical Tesla one-pedal driving. But wow, that acceleration is absolutely nuts. When cruising here at about 120 km/h, like 70 mph, noise insulation is good. They also use active noise cancellation then here now. And that means we have a very, very nice silent feeling in here. It’s not that bad that you have this vacuum feeling in the ears… Holy moly! And that GTI was behind us and then it’s like, disappeared! And you don’t have any acoustic feedback for that. So otherwise, when you are in these combustion
engines and it’s like brrrrr… Then you know something is happening. But here it’s… I always compare it in a way… Just imagine you’re sitting at home on your sofa or maybe on a chair or something, and someone does like… this and then you’re like, 200 meters further in the front. Your brain cannot really cope with that. So even as a driver, even when you know when the acceleration is happening, it’s still really hard to cope with that. And you see it even when we are already at speed. Like 130 km/h now, like 80 mph, wow!
There’s still more push and that was 200. That is absolutely crazy! So never… It brings a smile to your passengers when they like acceleration. So I cannot recommend carrying any passengers who don’t like acceleration in this vehicle because they might puke all over the place here in that vehicle. That’s the acoustic warning also when I’m getting over the lane. Yeah. Now we’re getting to another… Really cool lane change here as well. The driving feeling is phenomenal. And I really like the suspension as well. It’s not too stiff, not too soft at all. Here now in
this transition between the two motorways. Wow, it’s a lot of fun. And here on the motorway, I’m really enjoying the yoke steering wheel. It feels like in a Formula One car. It feels like gaming. So you really have to do reality checks. I mean, with this acceleration, with this steering wheel, it’s like… ‘Oh, wait a minute. I’m still in reality. I’m not in an arcade game or something.’ Wow, this is amazing. Wow, great spotty feeling. So much fun, and we’re in a large EV sedan. We’re carrying so much weight. But due to the low center
of gravity, it’s no problem at all. And this acceleration is so fast, you know, I’m just sliding on the throttle and it’s going forward so effortless actually. Wow! We can do another acceleration while steering by the way here. That’s also very interesting. We can drop down the speed a little bit because here, we have now a good chance. Unlimited speed, there’s no one behind us, hardly anyone in front of us. Dropping the speed now to like, 75 km/h… Holy! What the…! 250 km/h Oh my god! Top speed, 267 km/h. Holy… What the hell! I’m not
sure if this shouldn’t be legal. I mean, it is legal, what I just did, but just you have to be very careful of course, doing this on public roads. You feel the pressure on your ear? It’s like it’s really like when a plane is taking off or when a plane is landing. Whoa. Is that a speed camera? No, it’s not. Gladly not. Whoa, this is messing with your brain totally. So probably for most of the time, I would just recommend putting it in ‘Chill’ acceleration. And when you push the throttle then, it is limited but
still fast enough that it will be, ‘Oh, okay. This is then like a normal vehicle.’ And Sport would be something in between. That you already have a great push but don’t want the super extreme feeling. Yeah, showing off from time to time but please, everyone who buys this vehicle or owns it, hardly I ever say this about vehicles but please be careful with that, you know? You need to have a lot of experience to be able to handle this one. This is so fast it is extremely dangerous. Not because it’s a bad vehicle, not at
all. You know, it’s a very safe vehicle and great crash safety results and so on. But this kind of acceleration, and the same would be also to another you know, super/sports car or something… It’s even not a ‘supercar’. This is already a hypercar but from stock, you know? It’s probably like the only hypercar from stock. Wow. I really gotta… I think I gotta digest it a little bit. Yeah, I mean… Like a slight push is a lot of fun, actually. So I would say like, like midway through, its in a way where your body says
like, ‘Hey, this is fun!’ But hammering the throttle all the way through, I really have to say this is one of the very rare vehicles where the acceleration can be beyond fun because it’s just too extreme. And let me just try again with that Sport mode. So when I drop down a little bit and then hammer in, let’s hammer in the Sport mode here. Yeah. Yeah, that’s good actually. So in the Sport mode, you can hammer it all the way through and it’s still fun. So to me, it would definitely be Chill or Sport mode
when you are in normal driving situations. Yeah. And then maybe Plaid when everything is free, you want to show off once or something. But really, extra precaution and then it should actually be better. I really liked the suspension. Together with the wheel combination, it’s a good choice. So with the Model X, I would always go with the 20-inch wheels. Here, 21-inch work. If you want more comfort, stick with the 19 ones. But here, the 21-inch combo. Yeah, it’s good visual on the outside but still you have enough comfort on the inside. When you compare, by
the way, Tesla Model X and Tesla Model S, they are, you know, kind of similar in a way. The main difference is, of course, here you have more of this planted sedan seating position. In the Model X, more upright. Here, I would say on short trips, the Model X is more comfortable. On longer trips, sitting a little bit lower, feeling less G forces might be more comfortable with the Model S. To me, the interesting thing is that here now with a seat upgrade here, they both get similar seats. And before, I was not really happy
especially with the seats in the Model S. This combination of having a sedan seating position and the seat economics not being so good would have me drawn from the Model S and more to the Model X. Here now, the seats are way better. So I would also feel comfortable in the Model S. The Model X, of course, has even more like… unique special approach with the whole vehicle concept. And then when you compare Model 3 or Model Y, I would indeed, when the budget is allowing it, rather go for S and X especially now with
this update. Before, the 3 and the Y, they were more modern and so on. And here now, everything has been evened up, you know? You have a great modern new concept. You have a heat pump now. That works. The efficiency is also really great and so on and so on. You can also reset the trip meter and see what we consume with more of steady driving when we put out these ‘extreme accelerations’ and so on and so on. So meanwhile, I would tend to Model S and X again. And then the question is just if
you have that ‘SUV feeling’ or not, what you prefer. Because suspension in Model 3 and Model Y is to me, too stiff, too rough. I was like… Here, I really prefer the air suspension. That’s just a way better, more comfortable ride. I really, really like that. Noise cancellation-wise, it’s also really good. With this active noise cancellation, it works very well. And you don’t have this vacuum feeling which I sometimes had when driving vehicles with active noise cancellation. Maybe they went over the top? I know it from the Ford Kuga, for example, or from the Mercedes
S-Class Maybach, That was just too much of this active noise cancellation. But here, it’s actually fine. And build quality-wise, they’ve also stepped up the game. So indeed where maybe in the past was like ‘Hey, we have like these super interesting solutions for the software. But then the driving quality doesn’t keep up with the Germans.’ Here now in driving, it feels good from suspension. It’s a very nice and direct steering and so on. It really also keeps up in the driving hardware aspects with the German competitors. Of course, Mercedes EQE AMG would be one of the
direct competitors in this respect. I just feel like I have to do some neck exercises when I get home. Yeah, this is really getting some stress on your neck. But maybe I recommend like… The head restraint is kind of stiff. When you’re doing this kind of accelerations, better first push your head into the head restraint. That is really keeping you away from a whiplash. Right here. Also, a Tesla Model 3 behind us now. Yeah, I think also the… I found the ‘S’ more beautiful as for the exterior styling too as well, by the way. And
you know, in this narrow, you know, construction site on the Autobahn, it doesn’t feel too wide although it’s a little bit wider than before. Very easy to control. So when you don’t have it on the Plaid mode and accelerate the hell out of there, it is actually also a comfortable, silent ride. So you can also use this vehicle here just to relax. You don’t have to attack all the way. But of course, if you like, you can do that. Another difference in X and S will be that this one is more efficient. So when you
drive slower, or faster in both ways, especially actually, when you go faster… Because of the drag coefficient, it’s even better in the Model X. And therefore, the energy consumption will be even lower and this also then pushes the range. And indeed, efficiency is really, really good now when I’ve put out these extreme accelerations. So we are at figures below 20 kWh on 100 kilometers. So at the moment like, for example, 17. And that means like, less than 27 kWh on 100 miles. So this 500 kilometers or 300 miles of real-world realistic range, even in wintertime
now, is really… that’s for real, you know? Because now, fitted with a heat pump for X and S, this one then now is, you know, less difference of summer range and winter range. Very good thing to have. So long range or high-distance driving is also possible now. And once again, also just cruising 100 km/h or 60 mph, very comfortable. Of course, you can let the hell… hounds of hell out anytime you want. So when easing the car in and out the parking lot here, for example, you see it works. Oh, no one has seen that!
I’m not staying here, of course. So like this, it works of course. But with a round steering wheel, it’s a little bit easier here when grabbing around. But you see with this technique, it works, but you cannot let it slide that you would do with the round steering wheel and so on. You get used to it, but I wouldn’t say it’s ideal for easing the car in and out on the parking lot. So… I don’t know. Maybe like grab over here? You’ll find some ways to do that. And I mean when you’re stationary or like
parking in and out, it’s also not really a security issue. I think the biggest problem would be when you are in a tight corner and then have to grab around, you know? That could indeed be some kind of a problem. Yeah, but on the motorway, as I said, it was no problem at all. That was really really nice and felt sporty, and just somehow ‘cool’, you know? So here we go. Bumps in the road. This road is really uneven and the air suspension is evening that out very well. 19 or 21 inch wheels are available
then here for this one. And the thing is that with the 21 inch wheels as we have it here at the moment, I think it’s okay. If you want more comfort, of course, you would stick with the 19-inch wheels. But the 21-inch here work. I had the experience with the Tesla Model X where we had the 22-inch wheels mounted, and that was less comfortable from these small bumps in the road, you know? So here then with the 21-inch, it’s definitely better. However once again for the best comfort, then stick with the 19-inch wheels. In the
city, it’s already a lot of fun here. And even if you just slightly press the throttle, it goes forward so well. Yeah if you go for the Sport or the Chill mode, it is a little bit relaxed, a little more relaxed in the city then. Other than that, the Plaid mode, showing off to your friends or something. But when you’re using this car everyday on and on and on, then you would rather keep it in the slower acceleration modes. Using these turning indicators, you get used to that quite quickly actually. So some of the innovations
are actually fine, they’re okay. And they really clean things up. At first you think, ‘Oh, what am I doing?’ But then you see, ‘Ah, okay. I use this one and that’s okay.’ So this is one of the things. It’s really fine and I’m also happy that we have the drive mode selector here in the lower part so you don’t have to do it everything in the screen. I think that’s a good solution that you at least offer the customer both possibilities. Well, we can also do some… Better get off the road quick! Okay, so yeah,
it’s really astonishing, this get-go jump from the traffic light. It’s so extreme and more extreme than sometimes your body actually can bear. And from the outside, it still looks a little bit in disguise. You know, when you see like a Porsche 911 Turbo S or something, everyone’s like ‘Oh, it’s super sporty vehicle. And what’s happening now when the acceleration on the trafficlight…’ But here, it’s more like ‘Ah, okay. Yeah, Tesla Model S. It’s a normal model.’ But then you’re…. Bam, and you’re off. So that’s really, really something even when you’re driving in the city. You
rather have to check out that they don’t hit the speed camera then. And of course, for safety, just… This is essentially also a weapon, this vehicle, because it’s really so extremely fast. But you can even in the Plaid mode, tune it in a very fine way. Of course, always as we know from Tesla here, when you lift your throttle, then your accelerator pedal as we can call it in the EVs, than there’s a strong recuperation. So one pedal driving is what Tesla intends to. That you had the use to real brakes. You just use this
one pedal for acceleration and also then for the braking. And yeah, when you get to the motorway again, you could easily him and I mean just like this in between, like 50 to 80 hold your breath. That’s it. Like it’s absolutely crazy. As for assistance systems, I set it here, the autopilot on the steering wheel with a click and then I can also adjust the speed here with scrolling up. And so far, the lane’s also being kept in a nice way. I’m suppose to keep my hands on the steering wheel as well. And there’s not
a sudden or hectic movement or something like that. Of course, never trust in it 100% What can be quite challenging here is that the vehicle is suggesting which speed is allowed here at this moment, and then it’s always adjusting the speed according to that. But sometimes, speed is changed. And then you set the cruise control but it’s a complete different speed than it’s allowed at this moment. So yeah, maybe like a more current traffic sign recognition would help then in this respect for that. Other than that, also on press on the brake is also canceling
the cruise control. And then, you can take everything yourself in your own hands again. A serious competitor, is there one? Well, maybe the Mercedes EQE as the AMG version or you might want to tune into another sporty EV, the BMW i4.
