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The Tesla Model S is an all-electric five-door liftback sedan produced by Tesla, Inc. It was introduced on June 22, 2012.[12] It received a major refresh in June 2021. Tesla positions Model S as its flagship.
In 2013, the Model S became the first electric car to top the monthly new-car-sales ranking in any country, leading twice in Norway, in September and December 2013[13][14][15][16] and in Denmark in December 2015.[17] Sales passed 250,000 units in September 2018.[18][19][20][21] The Model S was the top-selling plug-in electric car worldwide in 2015 and 2016, although it was later surpassed by Model 3.[22][23][24]
Consumer Reports owner satisfaction survey consistently rated the car at or near the top of its ranking.[25] In 2019, Motor Trend named the 2013 Tesla Model S the ultimate "car of the year" over the magazine's 70-year history.[26]
Model S was codenamed WhiteStar before its release. It was officially announced on June 30, 2008.[27][28] The prototype vehicle was displayed on March 26, 2009.[29] The exclusive premier was held at Tesla's Menlo Park store on April 8, 2009.
First production Model S, with owner and Tesla board member Steve Jurvetson
In May 2010 Tesla announced it would produce the Model S at the former NUMMI plant in Fremont, California,[30] which became known as the Tesla Factory.
The first ten customers received their cars at the Fremont factory on June 22, 2012, at the official launch.[31] Production grew from 15–20 cars completed per week in August 2012[31] to about 1,000 cars per week in 2015.[32]
In 2012, the EPA range for the base model was 208 mi (335 km)[33] while the longer range model was 265 miles (426 km).[34][35] Musk claimed that the Model S battery offered twice the energy density of the Nissan Leaf's, with more than double the range, increased by a low drag coefficient, motor efficiency and rolling resistance.[36] The original battery was similar to the Panasonic NCR18650B cell that offered an energy density of 265 Wh/kg.[37] Analysts estimated battery costs to be around 21–22% of the car cost.[38] The 60 kWh battery was guaranteed for eight years or 125,000 miles (200,000 km), while the 85 kWh was guaranteed for eight years and unlimited miles.[39][40] In 2012, Tesla began building a network of 480-volt charging stations, called Tesla Superchargers, to facilitate long-distance travel.[41]
The Center Display was powered by a Nvidia Tegra 3 3D Visual Computing Module (VCM), while the instrument cluster was driven by a separate Nvidia Tegra 2 VCM.[42][43] The Tegra system on a chip (SoC) integrated eight specialized processors, including a multi-core ARM CPU, a GPU, and dedicated audio, video and image processors.
The Tesla Model S was the 2013 World Green Car of the Year, 2013 Motor Trend Car of the Year, Automobile magazine's 2013 Car of the Year, Time Magazine's Best 25 Inventions of the Year 2012,
On October 9, 2014, Tesla introduced "Dual Drive" all-wheel drive (AWD) versions of the Model S 60, 85, and P85 models, designated by a D at the end of the model number (the P represented performance).[47][48][49] Autopilot arrived in September 2014, supported by cameras, forward looking radar[50][51] and ultrasonic acoustic location sensors that provided a 360-degree view.
Deliveries of the P85D started in December 2014, with the 85D models following in February 2015, and the 70D models in April 2015.[48] On April 8, 2015, Tesla discontinued the Model S 60.[52]
In June 2015, Tesla said that Model S cars had traveled over 1 billion miles (1.6 billion km), the first all-electric car to reach that total.[53][54] (In 2014 the hybrid-electric Chevy Volt had travelled 1 billion miles, but only 629 million were all-electric miles, while Nissan said the all-electric Leaf had accumulated 625 million total miles.[54]) Global Model S sales passed 100,000 units in 2015,[55] and 150,000 in November 2016.[56] The 200,000 milestone was achieved by early in the fourth quarter of 2017.[57]
In July 2015, Tesla announced its goal to make a Model S powertrain that lasted for one million miles.[58] The 2015 update introduced electromechanical brakes.[59]
In March 2018 it was announced that Tesla had upgraded the Media Control Unit (MCU) to version 2.[72] MCU 2 improved the performance of the center screen, enabling Tesla Arcade and Tesla Theater.[73] The center display and the instrument cluster were driven by a single multi-core x86 Intel Atom CPU. In May 2018 Tesla released incomplete source code[74] for the Model S on a GitHub repository as part of their software license compliance process in collaboration with the Software Freedom Conservancy.[75][76]
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