Tesla Unveils ‘Insanely Fast’ 691 HP, All Wheel Drive, Model S P85D With Auto Pilot
When Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk hinted last week at wanting to unveil the "D", along with "something else", it was a little difficult to gauge what either of those things would be. On the D front, it turns out that it refers to Tesla's new dual motor design, something that was actually widely speculated over the past week. This motor will be put into a new Model S called P85D, and with its all-wheel drive, it's able to go - get this - 0 to 60 in 3.2 seconds.
As you'd expect, the P85D is going to bump Model S' price up nicely, to $120,000. Come February, two other all-wheel drive models will come out, 60D and 85D, which should satisfy those not wanting to break the $100,000 barrier.
Performance isn't the only perk that the P85D brings to the table, though; it has the ability to go an impressive 275 miles on a single charge. So, not only is this Tesla's most powerful car to date, and one that has the performance that rivals some supercars, it can also bring you quite a distance before you need to worry about recharging.
The "something else" referred to before is actually pretty major on its own: Autonomous driving support. According to Musk, Model S cars produced today will all support simple auto-driving features, such as being able to park by itself, recognize objects in the road, and even be able to turn on the A/C in advance of a trip. While this isn't totally autonomous, as in it can't drive you around without you paying attention, these are still some really cool features.
One thing I'm sure all Model S owners are wondering right now is: Can older models be retrofitted with these autonomous features? Let's hope so.