In 2016, Musk tweeted that Plaid would be reserved for the upcoming Roadster, so it appears that plans have changed. He explained today in another tweet that the triple motor Plaid setup is “about a year away,” with plans to make it available into the Model S, X and Roadster, but not the cheaper/smaller Model 3 or Y.

The only thing beyond Ludicrous is Plaid

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 12, 2019

Yes. To be clear, Plaid powertrain is about a year away from production & applies to S,X & Roadster, but not 3 or Y. Will cost more than our current offerings, but less than competitors.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 12, 2019

This isn’t quite the Taycan-fighting Nürburgring run Musk had initially promised we’d see this week, but he later mentioned the company would need to do more review and testing ahead of the attempt.

Our friends at Autoblog have picked up spy shots of a modified Model S P100D that is, as Musk promised, driving around the German roadway right now, so hopefully the battle between sporty EVs will get some comparable data soon.

*~ Some personal news ~*

We lapped Laguna Seca @WeatherTechRcwy in 1:36.555 during advanced R&D testing of our Model S Plaid powertrain and chassis prototype

(That’s a second faster than the record for a four-door sedan) pic.twitter.com/OriccK4KCZ

— Tesla (@Tesla) September 12, 2019