Sales of Tesla Model X Plaid and Model S Plaid in China to begin soon

11 October 2022

Tesla is manufacturing only the Model 3 and Model Y in China. The two larger cars in its lineup went on sale in the country a long time ago, but the Plaid versions are yet to make it across. Elon Musk did promise that the Model S Plaid would be available from March this year in the Chinese market but that clearly didn't happen. Well, the Chinese customers can rejoice, Tesla Plaid - both Model S and Model X - is finally coming.

The MIIT publishes on a regular basis a list of all electric vehicles that qualify for the sales tax exemption. That list is a first sign of new cars to enter the Chinese market and its latest version contains both the Model S and Model X included on it for the very first time.

The list includes basic specifications such as battery capacity and its weight together with CLTC driving range. As we all know, that is the most optimistic range testing regime and is far off the EPA or WLTP standards which most of the car manufacturers use when quoting range of electric cars.

In the MIIT list, the Model S has two different ranges - 715km and 672km, Tesla’s official website quotes 652km for the long-range Model S and 637km for the Plaid version. The same goes for the Model X - official Chinese CLTC range is 700km and 664km, but Tesla’s own figures are 560km for the long-range model and 536km for the Plaid.

That is a huge disparity and just shows the CLTC testing is far, far away from real-life figures. Official numbers quoted by manufacturers hardly ever are realistic, although some do come close, but when there is over a 100km difference between the official government endorsed figure and the one quoted by manufacturer - you just know this can’t be right.

After a very long wait, Chinese customers will finally get their hands on Plaid versions of Tesla. In fact, first sightings of Model S Plaid have already been confirmed in China with one blogger posting photos of it on Weibo. Good times are ahead for the Chinese car enthusiasts and good times for Tesla as well.

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