2021 Tesla Model S facelift – new interior with half-rim steering yoke, onboard gaming computer, 1,020 hp - Latest Car News, Bike news & Reviews, Auto News

Tesla has unveiled a comprehensive revision of the Model S, a ground-up luxury sedan design that brought the electric car maker into the mainstream following the original Tesla Roadster. Updates to its exterior may be subtle as the big news is all inside; the interior has been overhauled, its battery pack has been fully redesigned and the top-performing Plaid variant is now a tri-motor setup with 1,020 hp.

Inside, the Model S steering wheel of old has been replaced by an aircraft-style yoke, where a square-shaped ‘wheel’ is cut off at top, above the nine’ and three’ o’clock hand positions. Tesla calls it “the ultimate focus on driving”; no stalks, and no shifting. With a stalkless steering yoke, you can enjoy both the best car to drive, and the best car to be driven in,” it says.

Where Tesla previously used conventional stalk controls for turn signals, lights and wiper controls, these functions have now been reassigned to a combination of force-touch surfaces and artificial intelligence, along with the scroll wheels as already featured in the Model 3 and Model Y. This new steering yoke will also be introduced to the revised Model X, according to Electrek.

Tesla ultimately hopes for these functions to be taken care of by the vehicle, and this direction towards autonomous operation extends to selection of drive modes (Park, Reverse, Neutral, and Drive), which are now done through force-touch controls on the centre console, at the base of the wireless phone charger. The central 17-inch display is now turned landscape in its orientation, and joined by an eight-inch display for the rear seats.

This was indicated in internal Tesla documents sighted by Electrek, which said “The vehicle uses its Autopilot sensors to intelligently and automatically determine intended drive modes and select them. For example, if the front of Model S/X is facing a garage wall, it will detect this and automatically shift to Reverse once the driver presses the brake pedal. This eliminates one more step for the drivers of the world’s most intelligent production cars.”

Further throughout the cabin of the 2021 Model S, the revised model gets a premium 22-speaker sound system with active noise cancelling, multi-device music and media Bluetooth connectivity, the aforementioned 17-inch central display, eight-inch second-row display and 12.3-inch driver’s display, an onboard gaming computer with 10 teraflops of processing power – this is as powerful as the Sony PlayStation 5 – plus compatibility for wireless controllers.

The 2021 Model S can be optionally specified with Full Self-Driving (FSD) capability for US$10,000 (RM40,540), and this brings navigation on Autopilot, Auto Lane Change, Autopark, Summon, a Full Self-Driving Computer, Autosteer on city streets, and arriving later this year will be Traffic Light and Stop Sign Control, says Tesla.

Comfort features in here include heated seats for all passengers, a heated steering wheel and heated windshield, ventilated front seating, three-zone Airwave air-conditioning, HEPA air filtration system, custom driver profiles with automatic easy-entry and exit, ambient lighting, a tinted glass roof as well as ultraviolet and infrared protection on all cabin glass.

Further conveniences in the 2021 Model S include a front centre console with sliding cup holders and storage, a stowable centre armrest with integrated storage and wireless charging for the second row, an automatic, powered liftgate, wireless and USB-C device charging for each passenger, location-aware automatic garage door opener and Phone Key functionality.

For the North American market, there will be the Premium Connectivity package that is complimentary for the first year, offering live traffic visualisation, satellite-view maps, video streaming with access to providers such as Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, Twitch and more, Caraoke, music streaming and an internet browser.

Tesla has done away with the variant named ‘Performance’, and the 2021 Model S line-up is now comprised of the Long Range and Plaid. All Model S variants are all-wheel-drive, with a dual-motor setup for the Long Range variant and a tri-motor configuration for the Plaid.

The Long Range is so-named for its longest reach, with a claimed 412 miles (659 km) attainable on a single charge. Full deployment brings 670 hp, which yield a 0-60 mph (0-96 km/h) time of 3.1 seconds. The Plaid variant with the tri-motor configuration can do a maximum of 390 miles (624 km) on a full charge, and peak motor output is rated at 1,020 hp with a 0-96 km/h time of 1.99 seconds.

The top Plaid+ variant will be even quicker to the acceleration benchmark, with the electric car maker claiming a time of ‘less than’ 1.99 seconds; Tesla claims this elapsed time is with initial rollout subtracted. The Plaid+ variant will also likely pack a more generous battery pack, as this is claimed to have a battery range of more than 520 miles (832 km).

Both Long Range and Plaid variants can receive the full 250 kW rate of charge from Supercharger outlets, the Long Range in particular benefiting from a fast charge that brings 320 km of range in just 15 minutes. In the United States, the 2021 Model S Long Range starts from US$79,990 (RM324,279), and from US$119,990 (RM486,439) for the Plaid variant.