| USA TODAY | - |
HAWTHORNE,
Calif. -- Tesla Motors has priced its new plug-in performance sedan --
heck, it's really an electric muscle car -- at $122,090, including
destination fees but before tax incentives.
Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY Even though the car looks identical to any other Model S from the outside, its dual electric motor, all-wheel-drive system will make it one of the most powerful cars on the road.
Tesla says the P85D, as the car is being designated, will put out a combined 691 horsepower between its two motors. That compares to 470 horsepower for the previous most powerful Tesla, the P85.
Or to put it another way, the new Tesla has only 16 fewer horses than the car that Chrysler Group just introduced as the most-powerful gasoline-powered production muscle car ever made, the Dodge Challenger Hellcat, at 707 horsepower.
Most of the P85D's power is the rear. There, it will have a 470-horsepower motor. But unlike the current performance model, it adds a 221-horsepower motor in front.
But because its electric, the Tesla puts its power at the low end. Torque in the P85D will be 687 pound-feet, which means supercar performance off the starting line. The P85D rockets from zero to 60 miles per hour in 3.2 seconds, the same, says Tesla CEO Elon Musk as a McLaren F1. The P85D runs the quarter-mile in 11.8 seconds, vs. 12.6 seconds for the prevous most powerful Tesla.
Perhaps most amazing and it startling contrast to a traditional muscle- or supercar, the P85D leaps off the line almost silently and without the skid of tires. The car was demonstrated on the taxiways at a small airport in this Los Angeles suburb,
Top speed will be 155 miles per hour, compared to 130 mph for the P85.
Yet the P85D is a cheetah in sheep's clothing: It is virtually indistinguishable from the outside any other Tesla except for a model badge on the rear.
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