Tesla Model S
The Tesla Model S is a battery-electric, four-door full-size car produced by the American automaker Tesla since 2012. The automaker's second vehicle, the Model S has been described as one of the most influential electric cars in the industry. Its [|various accolades] include the Motor Trend Car of the Year Award in 2013.
Tesla started developing the Model S around 2007 under the codename WhiteStar, with Henrik Fisker appointed as lead designer for the project. After a dispute with Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, Fisker was replaced by Franz von Holzhausen who, by 2008, had designed the production Model S's exterior. Tesla unveiled a prototype of the vehicle in March 2009 in Hawthorne, California. In 2010, Tesla acquired a facility in Fremont, California, to produce the Model S, which was previously owned by General Motors and Toyota. Series manufacture of the car officially began at the Tesla Fremont Factory in June 2012. Tesla carried out the final assembly for European markets at its facilities in Tilburg, Netherlands, between 2013 and 2021.
Constructed mostly of aluminum, the Model S shares 30percent of its components with the Model X—a crossover SUV that was introduced in 2015. The Model S has undergone several updates during its production, the most prominent ones occurring in 2016 and 2021. These updates have usually included modifications to the motor, such as changes to power or torque, revised exterior elements, and refreshed interior features. One such change included the 2015 introduction of Tesla Autopilot—a partial vehicle automation advanced driver-assistance system. The 2021 update led to the introduction of the high-performance, three-motor Plaid—Tesla's most powerful model. Tesla announced the car's discontinuation in 2026.
In 2015, the Model S was the world's best-selling plug-in electric vehicle. In 2012, it was included on Times list of the Best Inventions of the Year, and the magazine later included it on its list of the 10 Best Gadgets of the 2010s in 2019. Car and Driver included it one its list of the best cars of the year in 2015 and 2016. In 2014, The Daily Telegraph described the Model S as a "car that changed the world". Road & Track argued that, with the introduction of the Plaid and features such as the yoke steering wheel, Tesla managed to turn the Model S into "perhaps one of the worst ".
Development
In January 2007, the American automaker Tesla Motors opened a facility in Rochester Hills, Michigan, employing sixty people to work on new projects, including a four-door sedan. Beginning development under the codename WhiteStar, Tesla planned for the car to have two powertrain options. The first would be a battery-electric version with an all-electric range of. The second was to be a hybrid electric vehicle with a range extender, capable of traveling between on electric power before a small gasoline engine would recharge its batteries and power the vehicle, giving it a total range of. However, at the GoingGreen conference in September 2008, Elon Musk—the chief executive officer of Tesla—announced that the company would exclusively produce battery-electric vehicles.In 2007, Musk appointed Henrik Fisker, known for his work with Aston Martin, as the lead designer of the WhiteStar project. Fisker signed a US$875,000 contract to design the car. The company requested that he design a "sleek, four-door sedan" priced from $50,000–$70,000, and that it be ready between late 2009 and early 2010. Fisker owned a design studio in Orange County, California, which Tesla employees visited to view his designs. Their reactions were generally negative; Ron Lloyd, the vice president of the WhiteStar project, described the designs as "terrible some of the early styles were like a giant egg". When Musk rejected his designs, Fisker attributed the decision to the project's physical constraints, saying, "they wouldn't let me make the car sexy". Shortly after the meetings, Fisker started his own eponymous company and debuted the Fisker Karma in 2008 at the North American International Auto Show. Musk filed a lawsuit against Fisker, accusing him of stealing Tesla's design ideas and using the $875,000 to launch his own company. Fisker won the lawsuit in November 2008, and an arbitrator declared Tesla's claims to be without merit and ordered Tesla to reimburse Fisker's legal fees.
A small team of Tesla engineers went to a Mercedes-Benz car dealership where they test-drove a CLS and an E-Class. Both cars shared a chassis, and the engineers assessed different aspects of the two vehicles, evaluating their positives and negatives. They ultimately preferred the CLS's styling and used it as the baseline for the Model S. After purchasing a CLS, they disassembled it, modified the battery pack of a Tesla Roadster, cut out the CLS's floor, and integrated it with the battery pack. They subsequently put all of its electronics and systems in the CLS's trunk and replaced the interior. After three months of development, the engineers completed a battery-electric version of the CLS. They frequently tested the car on public roads. It had of all-electric range per charge and weighed more than the Roadster.
In August 2008, Musk hired Franz von Holzhausen—who formerly designed for Mazda—as project WhiteStar's lead designer. Von Holzhausen reviewed Fisker's sketches and clay models but was unimpressed with what he saw, stating that "it was clear that the people had been working on this were novices". To save money, Tesla established its design center within a factory for SpaceX—a company also owned by Musk. As von Holzhausen began designing the exterior of the Model S, Tesla engineers initiated a project to construct another electric version of a CLS. They stripped it to its core, removed the body structure, and extended the wheelbase by to align with early Model S specifications. Within three months, von Holzhausen had designed what would become the production Model S's exterior, and the engineers had begun building a prototype around the design. Given the battery pack's substantial weight, Musk and the team began efforts to minimize the weight of other components. To address this issue, Musk opted to use aluminum instead of steel, stating that the non-battery-pack portion of the vehicle must be lighter than equivalent gasoline vehicles. He noted that the primary challenge was that if aluminum were not used in its construction, the car's performance would be compromised. To accelerate the development of the Model S, one group of engineers worked during the day, while another arrived late evening and worked through the night, both operating within a tent in the SpaceX factory.
File:Tesla Model S .JPG|alt=A front three-quarters view, taken indoors, of a Tesla Model S prototype.|thumb|left|The Model S prototype at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show
Tesla debuted a prototype version of the Model S in Hawthorne, California, on March 26, 2009. In August 2009, J. B. Straubel stated that a battery pack with range would be available, a significant advance at the time. Tesla initially intended to manufacture the Model S in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and later in San Jose, California, but later withdrew from both plans mainly due to financial problems. During the Great Recession, American automaker General Motors decided to abandon the NUMMI facility in 2009, with Toyota soon following. A month after the last car was produced at the manufacturing line in April 2010, Toyota and Tesla announced a partnership and the transfer of the factory. Tesla agreed to purchase a significant portion of the facility for $42million, while Toyota invested $50million in Tesla for a 2.5percent stake in the company.
During the early 2010s, Musk expanded the engineering teams for the Model S, while von Holzhausen grew the design teams in Los Angeles. The engineers operated in a lab with forty-five personnel. The pre-production version of the Model S, featuring newly stamped body parts from the Fremont factory, a revamped battery pack, and improved power electronics, was completed in the basement of an office in Palo Alto, California. Twelve of the cars were produced; some were sent to suppliers such as Bosch, while others were preserved for testing and design alterations. On June 22, 2012, Tesla invited its employees, select customers, and the press to see the first production Model S in Fremont.
Design
The body and the chassis of the Model S are made mostly of aluminum. The car shares its platform and thirty percent of its parts with the Model X, a mid-size luxury crossover SUV that was introduced in 2015. The Model S is a full-size sedan with four doors and five seats; until 2018, it had an optional folding third row with rear-facing seats for two children with a five-point harness. The company claimed a, the lowest of any production car at release. This claim was independently verified by the magazine Car and Driver in the middle of 2014. The vehicle's drag coefficient was improved by a solid front fascia instead of a grille, retractable door handles, and a flat underbody with no exhaust pipes to disrupt the airflow.The Model S's battery pack is its heaviest component and is located inside of the car's floor. The battery pack consists of thousands of identical cylindrical 18650 battery cells, each measuring in diameter and in height. These cells feature a graphite/silicon anode, and a nickel-cobalt-aluminum cathode. The Model S has a center of gravity height of, reducing the risk of rollovers. Since the heavier components of the drivetrain are positioned behind the rear axle's centerline, the Model S has a weight distribution of 46percent at the front and 54percent at the rear. The Model S has a single-speed reduction gear transmission. Rear-wheel drive models use a single alternating current induction motor; all-wheel drive models before 2019 featured two. However, from 2019, the dual-motor models featured a rear induction motor and front permanent magnet synchronous reluctance motor. The Plaid model, introduced in 2021, uses three permanent magnet synchronous reluctance motors.
A cast aluminum cross-member attached to the vehicle's body structure supports the front suspension and electrically assisted rack-and-pinion steering system. At the rear, a cast subframe is connected to the body using four rubber-isolated mounts to reduce vibrations. The front suspension features a double control arm design, while the rear suspension uses a multi-link arrangement, each with an air spring for improved ride comfort. This chassis also features disc brake components produced by Brembo. Since the Model S lacks a front engine, Tesla implemented a "frunk", which has of storage. The car's rear trunk possesses of storage with the rear seats upright and when the seats are folded down. Initially, the seats and steering wheel of the Model S were offered in both synthetic and non-synthetic leather options. In 2017, following a request from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to become the first cruelty-free automaker, Tesla switched exclusively to synthetic leather.