While this is very plausible - at the very least electronics of the S should be upgraded with the X release to the new chipsets/parts - I don't see Q4 numbers depending on a S facelift. They have a healthy backlog on X with 20k+ preorders and S as well (2-3 months?) so Q4 delivery numbers are absolutely not related to demand. They will be driven by the X ramp and X slowing down S production or not.
So As Mike was saying, Bonnie reported on the 16th (Sunday) that power was back on. Last time we heard they were only doing 5 day work weeks, but Bonnie said in a post there are some Saturdays when she can see the parking lot full. I would suspect that's mostly the end of quarter rush period, but regardless, we are talking 200-400 cars max, and Tesla did communicate that they think they can make up for that during the next few weeks (I recall a spokesperson saying that, but too lazy to google it now). So no, I do not expect any significant impact, but we will know for sure in little less then a month.
Just some (logical) speculation, that Tesla would update the S a bit with the X release. No evidence yet, and frankly I'd give an external facelift only 30% chance, but internally, "under the hood", I'd give it 80%. It is widely expected that the X will use a newer Nvidia chipset, LTE cellular capabilities, etc. and it would be logical for Tesla to update the S with those - I am pretty sure they do not want to stock more than 1 version of these electronics, plus higher volume means better prices.
Remember that Tesla is constantly updating the Model S. I'm not going to bother to find the link, but I recall we were told that there are something like 20 engineering change orders per week typically. Tesla is shipping an LTE retrofit package, so I'm assuming that all new Model Ss already ship with LTE. Many of the improvements are more subtle: my after-market stereo installer pointed out several places where Tesla has added or improved tabs that hold the dashboard and trim pieces in place. And of course there are all sorts of goodies that are available now that weren't there a few years ago: parking sensors, driver assist, heated rear seats & wipers, and a 90kWh battery, to name a few.
Indeed, however every once in a while they make a big change and announce the feature instead of just sneaking it in without much fanfare. Think D event, 90kwh battery announcement, Ludicrous, etc. The speculation is, that at the X reveal (which is believed to be a Founder delivery event on the 29th, hopefully with live streaming), Tesla will announce another bigger revision of the S, possibly including some external facelift too. I think this may have started from the guessing around whether the X will have a new nosecone design and whether the S would get that immediately as well to update the "family look". In any case, this is not entirely impossible... but I would not bet the house on it.
To me, the thinking on an imminent facelift of S in line with the reveal of X seems to be logical and supported by increased wait times as reported.
The first thing that occurs to me is new headlights, probably LED. A few pictures surfaced three or four months ago, and also the X spotted in the wild appear to have the headlights masked into slits - just where those LEDs would be, I imagine.
What I REALLY REALLY want to see is a headlight cleaner! That would allow more powerful illumination than currently permitted in Europe, 2000 lumen iirc, and we Nordics have a need for that, what with all the M00se you know.
Well, as long as we are all fantasising here ...
