The Tesla Model S is at the end of its illustrious 14-year run — and what a dizzying ride it’s been.
In 2012, when Tesla made its first Model S deliveries to customers, Facebook acquired Instagram. Apple launched the iPhone 5 and iOS 6. Barack Obama sailed into his second term. Superstorm Sandy shredded New York City and highlighted the ominous threat of climate change. As the nation recovered from the 2008 financial crisis, cautious optimism flowed through the airwaves as medium-sized tech companies seemed positioned to solve the world’s most challenging problems. Early adopters were whimsical pioneers racing faster to the future, breaking things and iterating for good. So was the mood when the Model S came to market and quickly made Tesla the world’s most interesting car company.
The Roadster, first introduced in 2008, was an irreverent spinoff of a Lotus sports car. Tesla unveiled the Model S the following year, but by 2012 automotive analysts doubted its viability. Making and manufacturing a production car at scale was a daunting task, and the swirl of borrowed cash Tesla burned was dizzying. The industry had seen startup car companies come and go. The odds were stacked against the California startup.
The odds were stacked against the California startup.
That June, Tesla hosted a launch event at its Fremont, California, factory and hyped up its first customer deliveries under the guise of an investor relations meeting. The buzz was palpable. “In 20 years more than half of new cars manufactured will be fully electric,” Elon Musk said to journalists in attendance. “I feel actually quite safe in that bet. That’s a bet I will put money on.” Even if the predictions didn’t come to fruition, the characteristic bluster and fortitude was on full display — thrusting the Model S into the zeitgeist.
Automakers everywhere winced as Model S became the vehicle en vogue. Car dealers revolted as Tesla bypassed franchises and sold directly to consumers. The market for luxury EVs and the strategy to make a high-priced super car caught the European luxury automakers on the back foot. While the original Model S base price was $49,900 — including the $7,500 federal tax credit — movers, shakers, and the Tesla faithful forked over six figures for a fully loaded version and the lifestyle and vision it promised. Here was a gauzy view of the future: clean, green, and chic under the direction of chief designer Franz von Holzhausen. An ArtCenter transportation design graduate, von Holzhausen left a solid leadership role at Mazda to go all in on the digitized future. The Model S interior wiped away expensive gauges, buttons, and knobs in favor of the ubiquitous screen that came to dominate almost all modern cars.
“It was the first software-defined vehicle,” Paul Snyder, chair of the College for Creative Studies Transportation Design program, tells me. “One of the biggest shockwaves was the revenue that could be generated after the sale of the vehicle.”
Desirable design
It wasn’t just a high-priced EV, but the most creative, clever, and desirable car the industry had seen in decades.
For the exterior, Tesla took design cues from classic 1970s wedge designs, like that of the Bertone X1/9 and Triumph TR7, that tapered off on the front end. The design team came up with innovative ways to work with the form of a car that didn’t require a traditional grille. “That execution of the front end without a need for a grille was very influential,” Snyder says.
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