Elon Musk says Tesla’s new Model S prototype is a 7 seater

After announcing the upcoming new Tesla ‘Plaid powertrain’ yesterday, Elon Musk said that Tesla had another Model S prototype with 7 seats.

Following the recent launch of the Porsche Taycan, Musk appears to be on a mission to show that Tesla’s vehicles are still the highest-performing EVs available today.

Last week, he said that Tesla would bring a Model S to Nürburgring race track — right after Porsche established a new 4-door electric car record at the track.

Musk later said that the Model S is at the track in Germany, but it sounds like they won’t be able to try for a record this week.

Instead, they turned their sights home and broke a record at the Laguna Seca racetrack with a prototype Model S.

Yesterday, Tesla announced that the Model S that broke the record at Laguna Seca this week had a new ‘Plaid powertrain’ and a new ‘chassis prototype’.

Now Musk is talking about another new feature or version for the Model S.

The CEO says that the Model S prototype in Germany has 7 seats:

Model S at Nürburgring has 7 seats

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 12, 2019

It’s not exactly clear what the CEO means by that since Tesla used to offer rear-facing seats for children in the Model S – technically making it a 7-seater.

However, Tesla couldn’t call it a 7-seater since the rear-facing seats were for children so they called it a “5+2” and they ended up discontinuing the feature.

Musk explicitly said that the new Model S prototype in Nürburgring has “7 seats” to “carry 7 people”, which could mean that it’s a different configuration than the rear-facing seat.

Tesla is believed to have brought several new Model S prototypes with its new powertrain at the Nürburgring racetrack for testing over the next few weeks.

Electrek’s Take

It would be kind of sneaky for Elon to be talking about rear-facing seats here.

I think he is talking about a new 7 full-seat configuration for the Model S. It’s not impossible to imagine since Tesla managed to squeeze a third-row in the Model Y.

However, I don’t see why.

That was always Model X’s domain. If you wanted a Tesla with a 7-seat configuration, you could order a Model X instead of a Model S.

I just really do not see a significant market for a 7-seat performance sedan, but please correct me if I am wrong.

On another note, the Model S prototypes that Tesla brought to Nürburgring – possibly even that 7-seater Elon is talking about – are interesting.

But what I find interesting is the ‘P100D+’ badge. It is probably a reference to the new Plaid powertrain, but Tesla is moving away from the P100D badging or any badging referencing the energy capacity so I am not clear on what is going on here.

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