When does a Model S become a 2016?

Old Man Mike · Oct 21, 2015

I understand that Tesla model year is not defined the same way as other car manufacturers where a 2016 model is available in the fall of 2015. Instead, Tesla defines the car year based on actual production. My question is:

If a Model S starts production late December and finishes early January, is it defined as a 2015 model or 2016?

FlatSix911 · Oct 21, 2015

Model year is very loosely defined and can be assigned by the automaker +/- a few months

Vger · Oct 21, 2015

It is defined when the VIN is assigned, because the VIN encodes the build year. That is generally at the start of production. For all practical purposes, for Tesla, MY 2016 starts with cars entering production on Jan. 1. Production only lasts a few days, generally.

Old Man Mike · Oct 21, 2015

Vger said:
It is defined when the VIN is assigned, because the VIN encodes the build year. That is generally at the start of production. For all practical purposes, for Tesla, MY 2016 starts with cars entering production on Jan. 1. Production only lasts a few days, generally.

Thanks! I should have figured this out myself since I had decoded a VIN number for an S model earlier this year. The VIN is assigned at confirmation and before entering production, so a car which started production in 2016 could still be a 2015.

mgboyes · Oct 22, 2015

Old Man Mike said:
I understand that Tesla model year is not defined the same way as other car manufacturers where a 2016 model is available in the fall of 2015. Instead, Tesla defines the car year based on actual production. My question is:

If a Model S starts production late December and finishes early January, is it defined as a 2015 model or 2016?

I think the fairest thing to say is that Tesla don't really define "car year" at all. It's basically meaningless - there's no such thing as a "2013 MY Model S" because the specs and options change all the time.

Vger said:
It is defined when the VIN is assigned, because the VIN encodes the build year. That is generally at the start of production.

Interesting. UK cars get their VINs assigned long before production. My P85D got its VIN on 13 July, which was then amended later in the month when I reconfigured it to be a P90DL (different battery code), but it didn't go into production until 1 September.

Didn't realise there was a production year encoded in there.

jaguar36 · Oct 22, 2015

mgboyes said:
It's basically meaningless

Its meaningful when you go to sell it, a 2016 will be worth more in 2020 than a 2015 will be.

jhs_7645 · Oct 22, 2015

Vger said:
It is defined when the VIN is assigned, because the VIN encodes the build year. That is generally at the start of production. For all practical purposes, for Tesla, MY 2016 starts with cars entering production on Jan. 1. Production only lasts a few days, generally.

Yes and no. I know my VIN was assigned in 2012 car was delivered Jan 18th, 2013 and it was a 2013 car (VIN #3305). I think they make (or at least used to make) an attempt to roll the VIN year a bit early because they don’t want to deliver any 2015 cars in 2016. Of course, that longer time period might have just been due to the early production days.

stevezzzz · Oct 22, 2015

Didn't the Founders Model X's delivered at the reveal get built with 2016 VINs?

andrewket · Oct 22, 2015

stevezzzz said:
Didn't the Founders Model X's delivered at the reveal get built with 2016 VINs?

They did.

Sparktz · Oct 22, 2015

I have one on order and specifically requested that it be a 2016 model year. To accommodate this request, my delivery got pushed back from December to late January to mid February.

Cebe · Oct 22, 2015

It's another thing to educate anybody buying/selling a used Model S. In the US, the "model year" can be used for almost two full years - as long as there is only a single January 1st involved. The emissions/safety certification runs by the model year. So, whatever designation Tesla chooses to use, I imagine they still have to officially deal with that aspect of the "model years"...

FlatSix911 · Oct 22, 2015

Updated Vin decoder for 2015/2016

Old Man Mike · Oct 22, 2015

Sparktz said:
I have one on order and specifically requested that it be a 2016 model year. To accommodate this request, my delivery got pushed back from December to late January to mid February.

That's interesting. I currently have a VIN number with an "F" designation for 2015 but the car is still in queue for production. I wonder if it is too late to request a delay to make it a 2016. Waiting an extra month or two, especially in winter doesn't seem like a bad trade to get a 2016 instead of 2015. It does seem that it would make a difference in future trade-in value.

Sparktz · Oct 22, 2015

Old Man Mike said:
That's interesting. I currently have a VIN number with an "F" designation for 2015 but the car is still in queue for production. I wonder if it is too late to request a delay to make it a 2016. Waiting an extra month or two, especially in winter doesn't seem like a bad trade to get a 2016 instead of 2015. It does seem that it would make a difference in future trade-in value.

Yep, the trade in value was my main thought in the request. I have waited this long, waiting another 4-6 weeks was very worth it to me.

breser · Oct 22, 2015

Vger said:
It is defined when the VIN is assigned, because the VIN encodes the build year. That is generally at the start of production. For all practical purposes, for Tesla, MY 2016 starts with cars entering production on Jan. 1. Production only lasts a few days, generally.

This doesn't fit with what they did for 2015. VINs for vehicles that clearly wouldn't be produced until 2015 but were assigned way before still got 2014 VINs. In December Tesla went through and updated all the VINs. I know this because it happened with my car.

Old Man Mike said:
I understand that Tesla model year is not defined the same way as other car manufacturers where a 2016 model is available in the fall of 2015. Instead, Tesla defines the car year based on actual production. My question is:

If a Model S starts production late December and finishes early January, is it defined as a 2015 model or 2016?

So to answer the question. From what I was told when I asked this, the date that matters is the date when the car hits the point they start putting VINs on it. In Tesla's case this is towards the end of production. So in the scenario you propose it would end up being a 2015.

But if your car finished production on December 31, 2015 and you didn't get it until sometime in 2016 it would still be a 2015.

JonG · Oct 22, 2015

I can't believe they mix model years on the production line so I guess the question is do they do a significant model year update like most other manufacturers (and if so, when, usually between now and calendar year end) or do they simply tweak all the time except when there's a product feature change.

mobe · Oct 22, 2015

Tesla is really like an aircraft manufacturer.
On an airplane if you need a part you look at the serial number, because changes are continually made to improve the product regardless of the calendar year of manufacturer. So for example cars that are 75000- 84000 are identical even though car 75500 is a 2019 model year and car 83700 is a 2020 model year.
The major change according to model year game is a marketing scheme to make you dissatisfied that your car doesn't look like the neighbors brand new model because the NEW model has square tail lights instead of your ugly old round LAST years tailights!
I am very happy that Tesla does not play that game. It gives a much greater pride of ownership.
If you want the latest and greatest in a tesla, you do it for the tech, not some goofy style thing.

vitaliy · Oct 23, 2015

I have postponed delivery from early December until late January for tax reasons. I doubt it will be 2016, since VIN was assigned on October 9...

andrewket · Oct 23, 2015

The model year matters far less on Tesla vehicles compared to other manufacturers. I took delivery of a "2014" P85D in mid/late December. It is no different than a 2015 delivered the second week of January, and has the same resale value. If you want to delay for tax reasons that's one thing. But delaying just for the model year imho is just denying yourself a few more weeks or months of driving the best car made to date. I sold my previous S, a 2013 P85+ for almost the same amount that a 2014 variant was worth with the same mileage etc. The only reason I got slightly less was not because it was a 2013, but because a few options came out later in 2013 such as automatic collapsing side mirrors that my vehicle did not have. In fact that car had a few features that were discontinued and no longer available, such as the leather 3rd row which imho were much nicer than the fabric only variety.

Sparktz · Oct 23, 2015

andrewket said:
The model year matters far less on Tesla vehicles compared to other manufacturers. I took delivery of a "2014" P85D in mid/late December. It is no different than a 2015 delivered the second week of January, and has the same resale value. If you want to delay for tax reasons that's one thing. But delaying just for the model year imho is just denying yourself a few more weeks or months of driving the best car made to date. I sold my previous S, a 2013 P85+ for almost the same amount that a 2014 variant was worth with the same mileage etc. The only reason I got slightly less was not because it was a 2013, but because a few options came out later in 2013 such as automatic collapsing side mirrors that my vehicle did not have. In fact that car had a few features that were discontinued and no longer available, such as the leather 3rd row which imho were much nicer than the fabric only variety.

I conceptually agree with what you are saying, that there is no difference between the cars between December and January, but I disagree that they would have the same resale value. If you have two perfectly identical cars in every way, except that one is a 2014 model year and one is a 2015 model year, there is not a single buyer that would choose the 2014 over the 2015, thus their value is not the same.

When does a Model S become a 2016?

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