Tesla updates Model S Tempest wheel design and removes red calipers from Plaid S/X

After officially removing the Model S Plaid+ earlier in the day, Tesla has made some other changes to the Design Studio for both the Model S and Model X.

New Tempest Wheels

Tesla’s flagship sedan used to come with silver Tempest aero wheels as stock equipment. Many thought the design and colour choice was a bit uninspiring for a $100K+ car. Tesla has taken that feedback and changed the colour of the aero covers to a darker grey and black combination.

The new colour scheme matches much better with the new factory black trim on the refresh Model S. Interestingly with the first deliveries just days away, we have yet to see these new wheel covers on any of the vehicles built thus far.

Red Brake Calipers

In a bit of a strange move, it appears Tesla is ditching the signature red brake calipers that come with their performance variants of their cars on the Plaid Model S and Model X.

The change was first spotted by @BabyTesla3 on Twitter, who shared images of the before and after images showing the Plaid variants now come what appears to be black calipers instead.

As with the new Tempest wheel design, all of the Plaid Model S vehicles we have seen built so far still have the red calipers. They were spotted as recently as last week when Drive Tesla reader @CodingMark visited the overflow lot near the Fremont factory.

Model S lot Plaid
Image via @CodingMark /Twitter

We will hopefully be learning more about these changes and maybe some other surprises on June 10 when Elon Musk hands over the first Model S Plaid vehicles.

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