Lifestyle
Tesla Model S Plaid comes in last against Lucid Air Sapphire, Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport in drag race
The stakes in the electric vehicle war have just been raised. Following a drag race against a frighteningly quick all-electric champion and the pinnacle of the internal combustion engine — both in four and two wheels — the Lucid Air Sapphire proved that it has what it takes to be at the top of the drag race summit.
YouTube channel Hagerty gathered some of the world’s fastest vehicles in a recent video. Among the vehicles was the Tesla Model S Plaid, the $136,000 supercar killer that has slain countless performance vehicles on the drag strip, including those that were several times its price. Another was the Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport, a limited edition, $4 million, 1500-horsepower, 8-liter, 16-cylinder, four-turbocharged hypercar.
The Lucid Air Sapphire is — similar to the Model S Plaid — fitted with three electric motors. Its horsepower is listed at over 1,200, which is not that far from the Plaid’s 1,020 horsepower. The Sapphire is notably more expensive than its Tesla counterpart, however, with Lucid’s configurator pricing the car at $250,000 to start.
The Results
Hagerty conducted a couple of drag race tests featuring the Lucid Air Sapphire, one against the Tesla Model S Plaid and Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport, and another against the Ducati Panigale V4 SP2, one of the quickest superbikes in the market today. In both races, the Lucid Air Sapphire won. This was particularly notable when the vehicle raced against the Model S Plaid and the Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport.
As noted by the motoring channel, the Lucid Air Sapphire was able to complete the quarter mile in an extremely impressive 9.1 seconds at 156 mph. The Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport, despite being left behind by the all-electric duo at the initial stages of the race, ended up completing the run in 9.3 seconds while traveling at 156 mph. The Tesla Model S Plaid, the cheapest car in the race, completed the run in 9.3 seconds at 152 mph. The Ducati Panigale V4 SP2, during its race with the Sapphire, completed the race in 9.3 seconds while traveling at 157 mph.
A Win With an Asterisk
While the Lucid Air Sapphire truly dominated Hagerty‘s tests, it should be noted that the vehicle used in the drag races was not exactly a car that was just pulled from someone’s garage. Instead, it was an engineering prototype expected to be identical to the Lucid Air Sapphire that would eventually be delivered to customers. So far, Lucid’s website notes that the flagship car should start deliveries in the first half of 2023.
Tesla, for its part, would likely not take this loss lying down. While an argument could be made about the race since the Sapphire was an engineering prototype and the Plaid is a notably more affordable car, the fact remains that the fastest Model S in production today lost the race. But Tesla is an incredibly competitive company. One would remember how hard Tesla worked to set a record at the Nurburgring. The Model S Plaid, in its current state, has not been unlocked to its full potential either. As noted by Tesla, the Model S Plaid’s 200 mph top speed would be unlocked later when the company releases the vehicle’s Carbon Ceramic Brake Kit and its highly-anticipated Track Pack.
Watch Hagerty‘s video below.
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Elon Musk
Trump’s invite for Elon just reshuffled Tesla’s big Signature Delivery Event
Tesla rescheduled its final Model S farewell to May 20 after Musk joined Trump in China.
Tesla has rescheduled its Model S and Model X Signature Edition delivery event to Wednesday, May 20, 2026, after abruptly calling off the original May 12 celebration. The event will take place at Tesla’s factory at 45500 Fremont Boulevard in Fremont, California, the same location where the Model S first rolled off the line in 2012. Invitees received a follow-up email asking them to reconfirm attendance and download a new QR code ticket, with Tesla noting that all travel and accommodation expenses remain the buyer’s responsibility.
The reason behind the original cancellation came into focus the same day it was announced. President Trump invited Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg, and executives from Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, Citigroup, and Meta to join his trip to China this week for a summit with President Xi Jinping. The agenda covers trade, artificial intelligence, export controls, Taiwan, and the Iran war, following weeks of escalating friction between Washington and Beijing over AI technology, sanctions, and rare earth exports. Trump wrote on Truth Social, “I am very much looking forward to my trip to China, an amazing Country, with a Leader, President Xi, respected by all.”
Tesla launches 200mph Model S “Gold” Signature in invite-only purchase
The vehicles at the center of all this are the last Model S and Model X units Tesla will ever build. Priced at $159,420 each, the 250 Model S and 100 Model X Signature Edition units come finished in Garnet Red with a one-year no-resale agreement, giving Tesla right of first refusal if the owner decides to sell. As Teslarati reported, the Model S defined Tesla’s early identity as a serious luxury automaker, and the Fremont factory line that built it is now being converted to manufacture Optimus humanoid robots.
Musk’s inclusion in the China delegation drew attention given his very public relationship with Trump, and the invitation signals the two have moved past and past grievances. Trump originally brought Musk on to lead the Department of Government Efficiency following his inauguration, and despite a sharp public dispute in mid-2025, the two have appeared together repeatedly in recent months. A seat on the China trip, the most diplomatically consequential visit of Trump’s current term, puts Musk back at the table on U.S. economic policy at a moment when Tesla’s China revenue remains one of the company’s most important financial pillars.
Lifestyle
Tesla Semi hauls fresh Cybercab batch as Robotaxi era takes hold
A Tesla Semi was filmed hauling Cybercab units out of Giga Texas for the first time.
A Tesla Semi loaded with Cybercab units was recently filmed leaving Gigafactory Texas, marking what appears to be the first documented delivery run of Tesla’s autonomous two-seater. The footage shows multiple Cybercabs secured on a flatbed trailer being hauled by a production Tesla Semi, a truck rated for a gross combination weight of 82,000 lbs. The location is consistent with Giga Texas in Austin, where Cybercab production has been ramping since February 2026.
The sighting follows a wave of Cybercab activity at the Austin facility. In late April, drone operator Joe Tegtmeyer spotted approximately 60 Cybercabs parked in two organized groups in the factory’s outbound lot, the largest concentration observed to date. Units being staged in an outbound lot is a standard pre-delivery step, and the Semi footage is the logical next frame in that sequence.
En route with @tesla_semi pic.twitter.com/ZfuOjaeLH1
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) May 7, 2026
This is not the first time Tesla has used its own Semi to move Tesla products. When the Semi was unveiled in 2017, Musk noted it would be used for Tesla’s own operations, and over the years Semi prototypes were spotted carrying cargo ranging from concrete weights to Tesla vehicles being delivered to consumers. In 2023, a Semi was photographed transporting a Cybertruck on a trailer ahead of that vehicle’s delivery launch.
The Cybercab itself was first revealed publicly at Tesla’s “We, Robot” event on October 10, 2024, at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, where 20 pre-production units gave attendees rides around the studio lot. Musk stated at the event that Tesla intends to produce the Cybercab before 2027. The first production unit rolled off the Giga Texas line on February 17, 2026, with Musk posting on X: “Congratulations to the Tesla team on making the first production Cybercab.”
Tesla’s annual production goal is 2 million Cybercabs per year once multiple factories reach full design capacity, with the company targeting a price under $30,000 per unit. Tesla has confirmed plans to expand its robotaxi service to seven cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas, building on the unsupervised service already running in Austin. Musk has said he expects robotaxis to cover between a quarter and half of the United States by end of year.
Tesla has taken home the “Overall Loyalty to Make” award from S&P Global Mobility for the fourth consecutive year, reinforcing Tesla owners’ willingness to come back. The 2025 awards are based on S&P Global Mobility’s analysis of 13.6 million new retail vehicle registrations in the U.S. from October 2024 through September 2025. The complete list of 2025 winners includes General Motors for Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer, Tesla for Overall Loyalty to Make, Chevrolet Equinox for Overall Loyalty to Model, Mini for Most Improved Make Loyalty, Subaru for Overall Loyalty to Dealer, and Tesla again for both Ethnic Market Loyalty to Make and Highest Conquest Percentage.
Tesla’s streak in this category started in 2022, and the brand has now won the Highest Conquest Percentage award for six straight years, meaning it keeps pulling buyers away from other brands at a rate no competitor has matched. Tesla’s retention among Asian households reached 63.6% and among Hispanic households 61.9%, rates that significantly outpace national averages for those groups. That breadth of appeal across demographics adds a layer of significance to a win that some might dismiss as routine.
The timing matters too. After several consecutive quarters of decline, Tesla’s share of U.S. EV sales jumped to 59% in Q4 2025. That rebound, arriving just as competitors were flooding the market with new models and incentives, suggests Tesla’s loyalty numbers are not simply the result of limited alternatives. Buyers are still choosing it when they have plenty of other options.
What keeps Tesla owners coming back has a lot to do with the and convenience of charging. The Supercharger network is the most straightforward example. With over 65,000 Superchargers globally, it remains the largest and most reliable fast-charging network in the world, and owners who have built their routines around it face a real practical cost when considering a switch. Competitors have made progress, but the consistency, speed, and availability of Tesla’s network is still the benchmark the rest of the industry is chasing. Then there is the software side. Tesla has built a model where the car you own today is functionally different from the car you bought two years ago, through over-the-air updates that add continuous game-changing improvements such as Full Self-Driving that has moved from a driver-assist feature to an increasingly capable autonomous system. For many Tesla owners, leaving the brand means starting over with a car that will not get meaningfully better over time, and that is a trade-off fewer and fewer are willing to make.
Tesla Model Y prices just went up for the first time in two years
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