Items tagged with Model S
When it comes to electric cars, Tesla has long been at the top of the heap with respect to market share, performance, and range. A newcomer to the electric car market, however, is looking to beat Tesla at its own game. Lucid Motors wants to disrupt the market with respect to performance and maximum driving range while offering even more luxuries for customers. The company’s first vehicle will be the Lucid Air, which we first talked about earlier this month when it ripped some seriously fast ¼ mile times (sub 10 seconds to be exact). Interestingly enough, the Lucid Air takes on a sedan body style in an age where sedans are a dying breed. Companies like Chevrolet and Ford...
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Back in early May, Tesla (and SpaceX) CEO Elon Musk got into a bit of a tizzy over the official Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) range figures for its latest variant of the Model S. Musk and Tesla had expected that the vehicle would be rated for 400+ miles of range, but it could only muster 391 miles in the hands of the EPA. That shortfall drew the ire of Musk, who accused the EPA testers of leaving the keys inside the vehicle which drained power overnight. The EPA calmly pushed back against those claims and added, "we are happy to discuss any technical issues with Tesla, as we do routinely with all automakers." Well, the EPA has apparently gotten around to retesting the 2020...
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Elon Musk has been on quite a bit of "wild streak" for the past week, starting off with Tesla's Q2 earnings call. While the company announced that it made a profit once again -- despite the shutdown of its Fremont factory because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic -- Musk drew attention for comments he made about EPA testing procedures. But let's back up a bit, shall we? Back in late January, Musk proclaimed that Tesla would soon be releasing a Model S with 400 miles of range thanks to improved core chemistry used in its 18650 battery cells. At the time, the Model S was rated for 373 miles for the "Long Range" variant and 348 miles for the "Performance" variant. However, when the EPA...
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Origin PC is now accepting orders for its new "Ludicrous PC," a modified Radio Flyer Tesla Model S toy car with high-end PC gaming hardware that sits literally underneath the hood. Specifically, an AMD Ryzen 9 3900X processor and GeForce RTX 2080 Ti take this thing from 0 to fun for those who can afford this kind of luxury. The press release pegs the starting price at $13,370, an obvious play on 1337 ("leet"), though a visit to the semi-customizable product page comes up with a $13,432 sticker price. Either way, it's expensive. Some might even say it's a ludicrous amount to spend on a PC, though that's not where the name comes from—Model S vehicles have a pavement-slaying 'Ludicrous' mode...
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Imagine for a moment that you bought a used car from a dealership, and after doing so, the original manufacturer of the automobile came to your house and began stripping away features that do not come standard with the base model of whichever car you bought. Maybe you call the cops, or perhaps you take matters into your own hands (we don't condone the latter). Either way, it would be an unfathomable situation. Nevertheless, Tesla is under fire for allegedly doing something similar, only instead of physically removing a customer's radio or anything like that, it disabled features on a used car by way of an over-the-air (OTA) software update. These are not minor features, either—Tesla is...
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When it comes to electric vehicle range and efficiency, there's Tesla, and then there's everyone else. Tesla first brought the Model S to market nearly a decade ago, and since then has followed up with the Model X, Model 3, and the soon to be released Model Y. Over the years, the company has worked diligently to improve its battery chemistry to improve efficiency, which makes newer rivals like the Porsche Taycan seem almost amateurish in comparison. But Tesla isn't standing still; CEO Elon Musk recently proclaimed that the its flagship Model S will soon be capable of traveling 400 miles per charge. Rather than switching to the newer 2170 format battery cells used in the Model 3 and upcoming...
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Tesla released its Q4 earnings report this afternoon, and needless to say, the company didn’t disappoint. For starters, it was Tesla’s second straight quarter of profit, coming in at $105 million for Q4 2019. This represented earnings of 56 cents per share for the quarter. However, Tesla posted an annual loss of $862 million, though investors seem unfazed by that figure. Two straight quarters in the black along with a steady increase in EV deliveries has investors rubbing their hands together. Tesla reported deliveries of 112,000 vehicles for Q4 2019, and a total of 367,500 deliveries for all of 2019 (a record for the company). Looking ahead, Tesla says that it will deliver...
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The hits just keep coming for the Porsche Taycan, which was unveiled as the newest and most credible threat to the Tesla Model S. When the EV was unveiled in late 2019, Porsche promised a driving range approaching 300 miles while delivering performance that would put in supercar territory. While the latter performance metric was met, Porsche has failed on the efficiency/driving range front. We learned in December that the Taycan Turbo was rated by the EPA to travel just 201 miles per charge. The numbers are now in for the even more powerful Taycan Turbo S, and that vehicle is EPA rated for just 192 miles per charge with an efficiency rating of 68 MPGe. For comparison, the Taycan...
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Porsche revealed its Taycan Turbo and Taycan Turbo S performance EVs early last month, and they are no doubt gorgeous, technology-laden track monsters. However, they are also prohibitively expensive. While the Tesla Model S Performance rings in at $99,990, the Turbo and Turbo S will set you back $152,000 and $186,000 respectively. The German automaker has always said that it plans to extend the Taycan family downward and its first step in that journey comes with the Taycan 4S. The Taycan 4S still features all-wheel-drive thanks to its dual-motor setup, but it will generate a total of 429 horsepower and 472 lb-ft of torque with the 79.2 kWh Performance Battery. Horsepower swells to 522...
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Tesla released V10 of its software recently and with that update came an enhanced Smart Summon feature. The idea behind Smart Summon is that drivers can press a button and have their car come to them rather than having to walk to their vehicle. It's not exactly a feature that we'd call "necessary", but it's definitely a cool trick to impress friends. The feature reportedly uses the smartphone GPS location of the owner as its target location. However, video of some users testing the new feature has surfaced, and it looks as if Smart Summon is not quite ready for the public. One video from David F. Guajardo shows the man hit the button in the Tesla app to summon his car, and shortly after...
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The EV wars are heating up, with both the Tesla Model S and the Porsche Taycan duking it out in the center ring. It all started late last month when the new Porsche Taycan set a Nürburgring lap record for a 4-door electric vehicle with a time of 7:42. Tesla CEO Elon Musk got a bit chippy at the Taycan record and declared that he would be sending a Model S to the Nürburgring to set a new EV record. Since that time, Tesla has captured a new course record for a four-door EV at Laguna Seca and has been seen zipping around the Nürburgring at a furious pace. According to people who were at the famed circuit and timed the vehicle (by hand), the new Model S with its...
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At this point, Porsche is going a bit overboard with the teasers for its upcoming Taycan electric vehicle. The Taycan is being billed as the first credible competitor to the Tesla Model S from a legacy automaker, and Porsche is pulling out all the stops to ensure that it offers a winning combination of performance, usable range, and styling. Last week we got a small glimpse of the Taycan's interior along with confirmation that it would be the first vehicle with dedicated support for Apple Music streaming. Porsche has now fully revealed the Taycan's interior, and it is a tech enthusiast's dream come true. We count no less than four display screens in this particular example. The primary display...
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Tesla is famous for its immensely powerful electric cars and their ever-increasing range thanks to advances in battery chemistry, motor design, and software updates. The company is also famous -- for better or worse -- for its Autopilot software, which allows the vehicle to take over the task of driving, and even changing lanes in certain instances. However, new analysis out from Consumer Reports suggests that one subset of Autopilot -- Navigate on Autopilot -- is somewhat half-baked in its current iteration and needs a lot more work. As we've previously reported, Navigate on Autopilot is the latest step towards full autonomy for Tesla vehicles. The feature allows a Model 3, Model...
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Range anxiety? What range anxiety? Just as traditional ICE (internal combustion engine) auto manufacturers are attempting to field their own entries into the luxury electric vehicle market, Tesla is moving the goal posts again. The company's EVs already have greater range their new competitors (by a fair margin), and now drivetrain updates are widening the gap even further. Tesla announced this week that it is using a new permanent magnet synchronous reluctance motor -- which has previously seen duty in the Model 3 -- on its Model S sedan and Model X crossover. This could with improvements to its bearings, gear design, lubrication and cooling allow the company to achieve a stunning...
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The automotive world is inching towards fully autonomous rides that can take us where we want to go without driver intervention. Tesla seems to be reaching towards full autonomy faster than competing brands; earlier this month the automaker announced that its Autopilot system could change lanes without driver input. Tesla has now announced that its latest self-driving hardware is available and it's called the Full Self-Driving Computer or FSD. The hardware was formerly known as Autopilot Hardware 3.0. Tesla also clarified that the new FSD is already installed in all new Model S and Model X cars that were built starting around March 20th. The new hardware is also inside many Model 3 vehicles that...
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Tesla is moving one step closer to fully autonomous driving with the latest update to its Autopilot software; more specifically, the optional Navigate on Autopilot feature. With Navigate On Autopilot, you can punch in a destination and while on the highway, the vehicle will autonomously take you to your destination with prompts to commit to lane changes along the way. The way it currently works, if your Tesla wants to make a lane change, the driver must confirm the action before the vehicle proceeds to take the necessary action. The new update allows the car to decide for itself if and when to change lanes automatically – all without driver intervention. Tesla writes: Once enabled,...
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Tesla CEO and Founder Elon Musk is known for encouraging his software engineers to incorporate Easter Eggs into the company's EVs. That's why we've been graced with such niceties as a Santa Mode, and more recently, the game Pole Position that can be played using your steering wheel and brake pedal. Tesla's latest Easter Egg will have you yelling "Great Scott," because "you're about to see some serious sh*t!" It was found by a redditor earlier this week who just so happened to stumble across the Back to the Future reference in the Tesla iOS app. When your Tesla EV has 121 miles of range left, you simply tap on the battery icon within the app which will enable the Easter...
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Porsche is set to reveal the production version of its highly anticipated Taycan EV later this year. The vehicle concept, which first bowed in 2015 as the Mission E -- is based on a new electric car platform and promises to deliver the thrills that Porsche is known for with the instant torque of electric motors. However, there's one metric where the Taycan won't be able to compete with its established competition: acceleration. The Tesla Model S P100D can rip off sub-3-second 0-60 runs in Ludicrous Mode, while the Taycan should do the deed in a still mind-numbing 3.5 seconds. But Porsche is looking to take the crown in a more important and practical way: charging...
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When it comes to modern electric vehicles, Tesla has become synonymous with advancing the genre. The company really caught a lot of attention with its Model S and has lit up the sales charts with its more mainstream Model 3. Now, Nissan is looking past its own econobox Leaf EV so push forward with the IMs concept. The IMs features a brand-new car platform that was designed from the ground-up to be used for EVs. It is a mid-size sedan that at 190 inches in length is about 5 inches longer than a Model 3, but roughly 8 inches shorter than the Model S. It rides on a relatively long 114-inch wheelbase, which leaves plenty of room between the wheels to accommodate a large battery pack. In fact,...
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Tesla has been making some changes to its pricing strategy over the past week, and the biggest change in quite some time comes today with the premium-market Model S and Model X. CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to announce that the 75 kWh battery pack for both electric vehicles will be discontinued and that customers only have until Sunday night to place orders for vehicles with that battery option. For those that don't keep up with all things Tesla, the Model S 75D with the 75 kWh battery has a base price of $76,000 and can travel up to 259 miles with a full charge. The heavier $82,000 Model X 75D with the 75 kWh battery can travel up to 237 miles per charge. Starting on Monday, Tesla will no longer...
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Tesla is ready to begin testing the next generation self-driving platform, which is called Autopilot Hardware 3.0. While Tesla's current-generation Autopilot 2.0 platform makes uses of NVIDIA hardware, Autopilot Hardware 3.0 will be using custom Tesla-developed AI neural net hardware with vastly superior processing capabilities. According to an internal email obtained by Electrek, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has put out a call to employees to help test Autopilot Hardware 3.0. Musk is looking for "a few hundred" internal participants to basically serve as beta testers for the hardware/software platform. Employees who own a Tesla vehicle, are accepted into the test program, and...
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Call it a sign of the times we live in, but even automobiles contain Easter Eggs, apparently. That's true of Tesla's Model 3, Model S, and Model X electric vehicles, all of which have a hidden game after applying the latest firmware update (9.0.2018.48.12). Fittingly, that game is Pole Position, a retro racing title. Tesla founder Elon Musk flat out said that some "super fun Easter Eggs" were headed to all Model S/3/X vehicles before the holidays. "Romance mode, toilet humor, and more video games," Musk promised on Twitter at the end of the November. Now just a couple of weeks later, he and his company have made good on that promise. There's a twist to the Pole Position game. It's actually called...
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