Transport & space · 2012

Tesla Model S

A long-range electric luxury sedan shows EVs can beat gasoline cars outright.

Deliveries began in June 2012 with up to about 426 km of EPA range and over-the-air software updates. It won major car-of-the-year awards and outsold large gasoline luxury sedans in some markets. Tesla's Supercharger network launched alongside it.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 1

Tesla Roadster 2008

What it led to 1

Tesla Model 3 2017

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Electric share of new car sales Latest: Battery electric: 16.5 % of new cars (2025) Source: Our World in Data

Lithium-ion battery cell price Latest: 78 $/kWh (2024 USD) (2024) Source: Our World in Data

Cost of memory and storage Latest: Memory: 1.09k $/TB (2023) Source: Our World in Data