Tesla cancelled the car of the century and it is a pity
The first time I saw a Tesla Model S was also the first time I met Mr Elon Musk. It was 2011, and he had brought an early Model S to the West Side Highway in Manhattan, where we met to go for a drive. It did not strike me as a crucial meeting. In the course of my work as an automotive reporter, I met plenty of people shilling new cars. Back then, Mr Musk was just the founder of a company that merged with another company that became PayPal. Only the wonkiest of tech nerds might have recognised him by name.The sedan he brought that day was the opposite of the big-spoiler sports cars I was used to seeing, like the Porsche 911 GT3. Completely smoothed to maximise airflow, the Model S was simultaneously low-key and unique.When I first got inside, it felt weird that there was no sound or vibration to indicate that anything had switched on, but the car felt surprisingly fast as we headed up the highway. So fast, Mr Musk said, it could beat an Aston Martin. He claimed it would change the world. I took that with genuine curiosity and a big pinch of salt; no one I knew at the time was asking for a laptop on wheels.Fifteen years later, Tesla has sold hundreds of thousands of that smooth sedan I first saw in New York. (The company does not break out sales numbers between the Models S and X, but their cumulative sales total is higher than 630,000. A spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.) By 2023, the Model S had helped make Tesla the only automaker in the “Magnificent 7”, a term coined to describe seven stocks leading gains in the S&P 500 index: Alphabet, Amazon.com, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia – and Tesla. Things have shifted since those heady days. Its first-mover advantage long gone, the Model S has grown outdated among the wide range of EVs now available in the United States. These are cars every other automaker had developed to keep up with Tesla. Today, Tesla is the only member of the Magnificent 7 whose reported earnings have declined since 2023, and Mr Musk says Tesla will now emphasise robots rather than passenger vehicles, sales of which have suffered because of a stagnant product line-up and the loss of federal incentives.On Jan 28, he announced Tesla will discontinue the Model S (and X). But that does not diminish the impact of this revolutionary vehicle. Love it or hate it, the success of the Tesla Model S forced every legacy automaker to jump into the race that Mr Musk created – to fill the world with electric vehicles. It changed everything else along the way – and will continue to drive what comes next. The Model S was not the first car Tesla developed. That was the two-door Roadster built on a Lotus chassis, which arrived in 2008 and sold fewer than 2,500 units. But it was the first car that Tesla created from scratch, and the one that catapulted the company to become the most valuable automaker in the world by 2020.I racked my brain for some other vehicle from this century making as much of an impact. In 2013, Porsche’s 918 Spyder and Ferrari’s LaFerrari, each a symphony of engineering and design, proved that hybrid electric technology could provide superior driving performance, not just better efficiency. BMW’s athletic i8 hybrid arrived that year too. Along with the diminutive i3, it proved that a legacy automaker could wrap electric power in ingenious designs that were well-suited for consumers worldwide. But none of those reached the production numbers or status of Tesla’s star.Nissan’s Leaf could qualify as car of the century. The world’s first series production battery EV, the Leaf launched in 2010 and outpaces the Model S with more than 650,000 sold worldwide. It was great for its affordability, convenience and fuel savings. But the Leaf lacks the cultural and ideological heft of the Model S, the flagship of a pure-play EV brand that spawned 75,000 Superchargers, a rabid following and a host of imitators. “Without the Model S, we wouldn’t be where we are today,” says Ms Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights at Cox Automotive. “It was the performance, range and design. It created like this awareness of EVs that was something totally different than what we got with the Leaf.” Another contender: the Porsche Cayenne. It belonged to the first wave of premium sport utility vehicles (SUVs), now the most profitable segment in the industry. It generated a ton of cash that allowed Porsche to attempt a historic (failed) takeover of Volkswagen, and it proved that Porsche could make SUVs without losing its core sports car customers.But the Cayenne’s impact was limited primarily to Porsche. Even then, the soccer mum rig did not become the bedrock of a brand’s cult-like status the way the Model S did: favoured by millions who cheered the chief executive online. At Porsche, that is the 911’s job.Others have suggested that a car from BYD might qualify as most important. After all, the Chinese automaker beat Tesla as the world’s biggest seller of EVs in 2025. But it is too early to hand the crown to a Seal or Qin L just yet. They are not sold in the US, the world’s biggest auto market by revenue. Even though many analysts say it is only a matter of time before BYD sells here, the US still deters Chinese companies with steep tariffs and bans software systems developed or controlled by them. Check back in a few years. The Model S surprised people from the start. When I first slid into the passenger seat and gazed up at Manhattan’s skyscrapers through its panoramic glass roof, my overwhelming impression from the inside was that here was something unlike anything people had seen before. It took me years to fully grasp how disruptive it was. Even Mr Musk himself was still driving the sporty Roadster as his daily. I rode in it with him soon after the Model S drive as part of further reporting in Los Angeles. He likened driving these electric cars to sailing, marvelling at how you could enjoy the sounds of nature without the roar of a combustion engine. “We need to figure out how to have the things we love and not destroy the world,” he told me.When the Model S arrived, people went gaga for the minimalist cabin, its front trunk, or frunk, and flush-mounted automatic door handles (currently undergoing a redesign because of safety concerns). The large vertical touchscreen mounted inside was what made the car feel the most futuristic.Unlike the quirky Leaf, the Model S felt like a proper automobile for adults, and it had the range (around 420km a charge) and charging capacity to back it up. It was undoubtedly the most progressive EV, with the biggest potential for mass appeal, anyone had ever seen. But the Model S also forced changes in the car industry that had nothing to do with its being electric. It was the reason Tesla became the first all-new mainstream automaker to enter and survive in the US market since Hyundai did in the 1980s. The Model S busted the myth that people would not buy a new car online. Mr Musk wanted to show the model in proprietary retail shops, not franchised dealerships. So, he went to court against the franchise laws and dealer associations that stipulated vehicles must be sold in traditional showrooms. He won, and the Model S became the first car you inspect in a mall and then buy with the click of a button.It was also the first mainstream vehicle to offer comprehensive, over-the-air software updates to improve technology and fix bugs, which simultaneously kept it feeling cutting-edge and reduced the need for maintenance. Now, legacy automakers like Mercedes-Benz and Porsche offer a host of similar software upgrades, and Lucid, Afeela and Rivian all copy the direct-to-consumer method Tesla pioneered with the Model S as the vanguard. Then there is Autopilot, which Tesla put in the Model S in 2016. Its advanced driver-assistance systems, like traffic-aware cruise control, were the precursors to the company’s current Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system that allows Level 2 self-driving. “Nothing has transformed the reputation of the Model S as much as Tesla’s pursuit of self-driving,” Mr Keith Barry wrote in a Consumer Reports analysis of the car a decade after its launch. “The car’s story is now forever entwined with Musk’s promises about vehicle autonomy.” Many Tesla acolytes today say what they want most in a new car is real self-driving. Mr Musk has been promising that since at least 2013, and analysts like Mr Anthony Salerno, senior vice-president of automotive analytics at J.D. Power, still believe he will eventually deliver.Meanwhile, the autonomous Tesla Cybercab, which you can hail via smartphone, is expected later in 2026. Call it the latest indicator that Tesla is shifting further away from making consumer cars altogether. It is almost like EVs were just technology mules – a means to an end towards Mr Musk’s more far-fetched goals. Tesla is converting factory space where the Model S and Model X were made in Fremont, California, into a manufacturing hub for the Optimus robot.“I can see the day where Tesla has morphed into this other thing that is not a passenger vehicle company anymore,” says Mr Kevin Tynan, director of research for the Presidio Group. “So, that the only thing that’s left ultimately would be a robotaxi.”Mr Musk announced earlier in February that he will combine SpaceX and xAI as he works to generate cash to fund future dreams while simultaneously de-emphasising the very things that bring in the cash: cars.But even when Tesla’s passenger cars disappear altogether, the legacy of the Model S will continue. The sleek sedan that catapulted EVs into people’s consciousness was more than cutting-edge. It was the key that unlocked a whole new world. BLOOMBERG
