Say what you want about Tesla, but one thing you can’t deny is the fact that the brand has almost single-handedly made electric cars mainstream. At one point it was almost as if the brand was the only manufacturer making electric cars. And with nearly every manufacturer on the planet gunning to be “the next Tesla”, it’s caused an EV arms race. But that high Tesla has been riding with record sales the last few years may be fading, as Bloomberg notes that two of the brand’s best-known models are old as hell. And buyers may be taking notice.
Company statements obtained by Bloomberg show that the Tesla Model S and Model X, the brand’s most expensive EVs, are slumping. While Tesla delivered an impressive 422,875 EVs in Q1 of this year, a closer look at individual models shows that the brand delivered just 10,695 of the Model S and Model X EVs. In other words, the models’ age may be showing.
Tesla introduced the Model S in 2012. Other than its refresh in 2021 that introduced the Plaid performance versions and some interior, suspension, and powertrain tweaking, the Model S you see on the roads is largely the same EV that debuted eleven years ago. It’s the same for the Model X, though a bit worse. The Model X was introduced in 2015 and hasn’t been updated since. Obviously, Tesla updates its vehicles often in the form of software, but more traditional car companies go through an introduction — refresh/update — new generation cycle that Tesla simply doesn’t abide by, for better worse.
Back in 2019, when the first hints of a Model S and Model X downward sales trend were first noticed, Tesla CEO Elon Musk took a strange stance. He seemed to blame the Model 3 for cannibalizing some sales of the two models. And when rumors started swirling that the company was working on updated versions of the Model S and Model X, he shut those down by saying that the cars had already been sufficiently updated. Not long after that, Musk made it seem like Tesla was still making the Model S and X because they were nice to have around. “To be totally frank, we’re continuing to make them more for sentimental reasons than anything else. They’re really of minor importance to the future,” he said in late 2019. That changed again just two years later when the Model S received its refresh, dubbed “Palladium”. But some of those updates — namely the stupid yoke wheel — haven’t really been upgrades.
Now, it seems as if Tesla is focusing on updating its big sellers, the Model 3 and Model Y. And with rumored refreshes coming for the 3 and Y - called Highland and Juniper respectively - I’m sure many are wondering just what the company has planned for the future of the Model S and Model X. Or if they even have much of a future at all.
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