Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced Sunday that the long-range version of the Tesla Model S Plaid — called the Plaid+ — is canceled. Musk said that this is because the regular Plaid is “just so good.”
This version of the car was supposed to offer 520 miles of range, as opposed to the 390 miles of range on the regular Plaid. The Plaid+ had a base price of $149,990, and was still listed on Tesla’s website Monday morning, though you could no longer make a reservation for it. The regular Plaid starts at $119,990.
There’s a lot we don’t know about Tesla, because the company no longer talks to the press and only releases limited information about sales, so we don’t know how many people have ordered the Plaid or Plaid+. We also don’t know why the Plaid+ is canceled, though it might be because the fancy new batteries Tesla is building — the ones Tesla talked about on Battery Day — aren’t yet ready for primetime, as Bloomberg speculates.
And this is, to be clear, a bit of a surprise, since six-digit-priced cars like the Plaid+ are where automakers really make bank, and Tesla is no exception. I am sure that the Model S Plaid is a very nice car, and it should be for $119,990; I am also sure that Tesla would have loved to sell you a slightly nicer version for a $30,000 premium.
In other news, Musk also said that last night that he does not play World of Warcraft because it is “too addicting,” but that “some engineers I worked with went on to help create” it. That prompted the co-creator of Dogecoin to remark that if Elon had been a World of Warcraft player, “there wouldn’t be electric cars or rockets.” In other news, I’m now going to take a long walk off a short pier.