The Tesla Model S Plaid is, without a doubt, one of the fastest production cars in the world. With over 1,000 HP under its belt, you would think that the engineers in charge of developing would’ve thought about everything on it, including the brakes. However, as many reviewers pointed out, that’s the one, vital flaw in this car’s design.
The Model S Plaid apparently has a braking issue, one signaled by more than one magazine so far. While the straight-line acceleration is definitely almost neck-breaking, coming to a stop is a completely different ordeal. The guys from Throttle House and MotorTrend have been among the few that signaled this issue so far. Thus, Tesla decided to fix the issue.
According to the official Tesla website, the Plaid Model S will get its own set of upgraded, bigger brakes. They are carbon ceramic brakes and considerably larger than the ones fitted now on the Model S. The entire kit includes much larger rotors, one-piece six-piston forged calipers, and high-performance brake pads.
There’s a catch though. The kit will only be available on cars equipped with the 21-inch Arachnid wheels, according to the item description on the website. That may very well be due to the physical limitations imposed by the larger rotors. They need extra room and might just not fit behind the 20” wheels. Another issue might be the availability. Tesla says that these carbon ceramic brakes will only be available starting mid-2022. That puts us at least six months away from seeing what the new brakes are capable of.
At the moment, the Plaid Model S ships out with the same brakes used on the Performance model, which isn’t exactly ideal, considering the power difference. Nevertheless, it’s definitely a good thing that Tesla reacted to the criticism and is looking to fix the issue, even though it will cost a pretty penny. How much? Well… a cool $20,000.
