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Tesla has tapped a brand new kind of automotive glass from provider AGP for the Plaid Mannequin S, invoking the thought that every thing, even the best particulars of the automobile, was thought-about a attainable enchancment for the corporate’s rebirth of the all-electric, flagship sedan.
Many months in the past, Teslarati stumbled throughout an inventory of Tesla’s suppliers via worldwide connections. These suppliers had been delivery large volumes of no matter product they had been giving to Tesla on cargo ships, and we seen that there was an organization known as AGP that was delivery windshields and different automotive glasses to the corporate’s Fremont Manufacturing facility.
It seems that AGP has been offering Tesla with automotive glass for a number of years. Again in 2016, AGP supplied glass for the Mannequin X’s panoramic roof and windshields. Nevertheless, Tesla utilized AGC Automotive’s windshields for its vehicles, in response to Investopedia.
AGP is a Peru-based firm that focuses on all varieties of automotive glass, however what they’ve carried out for Tesla is very attention-grabbing. The corporate has been in enterprise for 50 years, however similar to every thing else, it adjustments, and the automotive trade is not any totally different. As electrical autos have grow to be extra mainstream, applied sciences surrounding the event of those new, sustainable vehicles are popping up left and proper. AGP’s eGlass for electrical and autonomous autos is not any totally different.
Now, AGP says on its website that it collaborates “intently with the businesses which can be main the brand new wave of the electrical and autonomous autos of tomorrow.” Once I first stumbled throughout AGP many months in the past on the cargo ship checklist for Tesla, there was no indication that there was an official partnership, so I appeared into it a tad additional. I reached out to AGP and obtained a response that thanked me for my inquiry however refused to verify or deny whether or not it was in any kind of skilled relationship with Tesla. Mockingly, AGP gave the reply we wanted, as a result of responding to me was all I wanted to know.
Many might ask, “What’s the importance of what glass Tesla is utilizing on its vehicles?” There are many automotive glass suppliers on the market which can be value their weight in gold, offering high-quality windshields and home windows for autos on the street. After all, customers are going to need one thing that’s comparatively top quality, as a result of nothing is worse than driving behind a tractor-trailer on the Interstate, simply to have a chip or small crack in your windshield from one thing as tiny as a pebble. Whereas energy is undoubtedly a necessity for all windshields, EVs require a barely totally different little bit of improvement.
One of many largest focuses for EVs is their drag coefficient. Why is it so vital? As a result of aerodynamics are essential to the efficiency, vary, and effectiveness of electrical autos. As high-quality, long-range batteries are exhausting to come back by within the EV sector, producers search for each benefit they’ll get to attain sturdy vary scores. Whereas Tesla is the chief in EV vary figures, the corporate remains to be in search of methods to get all of its autos to or close to the 400-mile threshold.
Aerodynamics are an effective way to do this. And Tesla undoubtedly labored extraordinarily exhausting to achieve the best-in-class drag coefficient of .208, beating out the Lucid Air’s spectacular .21 coefficient.
We knew aerodynamics was going to be an enormous a part of the Plaid Mannequin S when it was noticed on the Nürburgring two years in the past. The automobile was sporting a big spoiler, an enormous rear diffuser, and the brand new eGlass from AGP is simply one other addition to Tesla’s makes an attempt to make the Plaid Mannequin S essentially the most aerodynamic automobile in its lineup.
A blue Tesla Mannequin S Plaid unit with new aeros assaults the Nurburgring. (Picture: Stefan Baldauf/Auto Motor Uund Sport)
We lastly confirmed that AGP was offering the extremely aerodynamic and EV-specific automotive glass to the Mannequin S Plaid because of Tesla Raj, who took an image of the producer’s sticker on the window of the all-electric sedan at Tesla’s Supply Occasion on June tenth. This all confirmed Teslarati’s discovery of AGP in its provider checklist a number of months in the past and in addition confirmed that the 2 corporations had a partnership, regardless of AGP’s unwillingness to offer a remark (which we understood why!)
It makes me take into consideration what Elon Musk might have wanted to work on for the ultimate week of Plaid improvement. When he had introduced that the occasion was going to be delayed every week as a consequence of “tweaks,” I puzzled whether or not it was software program or {hardware}. Whereas it was possible a software program repair that wanted to be addressed, it might have been associated to the drag coefficient, which Tesla proudly displayed on the Plaid Occasion on the tenth. However, the automobile has lastly been launched to pre-orderers, and the quickest manufacturing automotive that has ever run the 1/4-mile drag is right here, and it’s taking down something in its path.
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I exploit this text to share my ideas on what’s going on within the Tesla world. If you wish to speak to me straight, you’ll be able to email me or attain me on Twitter. I don’t chunk, make sure to attain out!
-Joey