Elon Musk hits the brakes on Tesla Model S Plaid Plus

The California-based company stopped taking pre-orders for the vehicle in May

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk said the Model S Plaid model is good enough and cancelled its more expensive version. Reuters

Electric vehicle maker Tesla officially cancelled the production of its most expensive model of saloon cars, the Model S Plaid Plus.

The automaker’s billionaire chief executive Elon Musk said the Plaid model is "so good" that another variant is not needed.

“Model S goes to Plaid speed this week,” Mr Musk said on Twitter. “Plaid+ is cancelled. No need, as Plaid is just so good.”

“0 to 60mph in under 2 secs. Quickest production car ever made of any kind. Has to be felt to be believed,” he added.

The $144,490 tri-motor Plaid Plus was expected to debut mid-next year.

The company had previously marketed the car as a supercharged version of the upcoming Model S Plaid that will be delivered to the customers from June 10.

Model S Plaid has a top speed of 322 kilometres per hour and an estimated range of 628km on a fully charged battery, according to the company’s website. The vehicle starts at $114,490.

The now-cancelled Plaid Plus had promised to push the performance and range of Model S even higher. The company had stopped taking the pre-orders for the vehicle on its website in May that led to media speculation that the Plaid Plus would be either delayed or completely cancelled.

Tesla, which dissolved its public relations department last year, did not respond immediately to The National's request for comments.

Global sales of EVs accelerated last year, rising 43 per cent to more than 3.2 million, according to Swedish data company EV-volumes.com. Tesla sold more electric cars than any other manufacturer, delivering nearly 500,000 vehicles. Volkswagen was the second-biggest seller of EVs.

Industry experts have cited high production costs behind the scrapping of Tesla's flagship Plaid Plus model. The California-based company has previously said it is strategically keeping the average selling price of its vehicles low to attract more customers.

Tesla only produced Model 3s and Model Ys in the first three months of the year and did not make any of its more expensive Model S saloons and Model X SUVs, which are priced from $75,000.

As a result, its average selling price fell 13 per cent to below $38,000.