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Sandy Munro Shows Us What Makes the Tesla Model S Plaid Tick, What Makes It Tok

Sandy Munro and his team have continued their teardown of the Tesla Model S Plaid, as promised. Fortunately for us, they have videos on the matter, and they offer insight on what has improved on the American electric sedan and what remains to be improved on its successor.
Sandy Munro and Tesla Model S Plaid 7 photos
Photo: Screenshot from YouTube video by Munro Live
Sandy Munro and Tesla Model S PlaidSandy Munro and Tesla Model S PlaidSandy Munro and Tesla Model S PlaidSandy Munro and Tesla Model S PlaidSandy Munro and Tesla Model S PlaidSandy Munro and Tesla Model S Plaid
The first phase of the teardown was focused on the interior of the Model S Plaid, as well as its frunk, which was featured in a single video. From there, Sandy Munro and his team have raised the Model S Plaid on a vehicle lift placed in the company garage to analyze it underneath.

As you can observe, the front suspension setup impresses Sandy, but it is not entirely perfect. There are things where the design can be improved, but the virtual ball design of the Model S Plaid is not yet impeccable, but it still is interesting to understand the way it was designed.

Fortunately for everyone who has not dismantled a Tesla Model S before, Munro's team is here to explain the difference brought by the Plaid, as well as underline the ingenious elements of its design.

Going back to the frunk, the Model S Plaid comes with an improved thermal system, which builds on Tesla's Supermanifold. With the latter, the vehicle manages the temperature of its key systems despite having to endure tremendous heat. Just like on other systems, there are occasional failures here and there.

Sandy Munro's team has added images of a heat pump that had failed, and the specialist found the defect to be concerning, to say the least. The problems with the heat pumps occurred in cold climates, but that does not make anything better for those who suffered the issues, does it?

Tesla is planning to release a firmware update to fix the heating flaws, but, as Sandy Munro noted, the issues with the defective heat pumps in the images are not related to software, but to machining, design, and manufacturing mishaps.

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About the author: Sebastian Toma
Sebastian Toma profile photo

Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland.
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