Last time we saw the Tesla Model S on a dyno, it turned in 388 horsepower, but the folks over AutoCar wanted to see for themselves just how much power the electric Tesla Model S can deliver.
They took the electric sedan to the folks at Surrey Rolling Road Ltd., and put the Model S to the horsepower test. The resulting 428.2 horsepower is rather impressive, considering Tesla only rates it at 416 horsepower. This also makes us wonder what the other testers did wrong to lead to the Model S pumping out drastically less power.
This amount of power is enough to make the new Tesla S Performance into a super-fast electric sedan that can sprint from to 60 mph in just 4.2 seconds and up to a top speed of 130 mph. All of this while putting off zero emissions — not bad at all.
At the end of the first quarter of the year, Tesla Motors was on a roll. The company announced it was ahead of schedule, selling 4750 vehicles between January and March (in the U.S.) – noting that it outsold the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf. It also said that it was showing a profit for the quarter – the first quarterly profit, ever.
The second quarter, which ends with June sales, was not as successful. In June, Tesla sold 1,425 vehicles and ended the first half of the year with 8931 units sold, according to Autodata Corp. That’s 4181 units for the second quarter, which is 569 units off the first quarter mark and 319 units off Tesla’s 4500 units a quarter mark.
So what’s happening? Lots of things might be happening. Other electric vehicles have followed similar paths seeing a spike in sales begin the plateau.
Sales for the Model S may have slowed after a strong push in the first quarter may have taken away from some of the later sales. Additionally, the sales number reflects U.S. sales and not other countries.
Still, Tesla remains on a path to average 4500 sales each quarter, putting the annual projection at around 18,000 units, a very respectable – and hopefully, profitable — number. (Though after that first quarter, Tesla upped its projections to 21,000 units by the end of the year, but that’s a worldwide projection, not strictly U.S. sales.)
Also, it’s worth noting that after the poor first quarter, the Volt and the Leaf have regained their volume lead on Tesla. The Volt, though June, has 9855 units sold and the Leaf 9839 units.
Looking forward: I think Tesla sales will level out and sell 17,824 units for the year, while the Volt and the Leaf will easily top 20,000 units each. The pipe for the Model S looks to be wide enough to handle about 1500 people a month and that pipe is not likely going to get much wider.
