Tesla Model S: The Disruptive EV That Changed the Car Industry

By Nigel Evans

Measure a car's importance by how disruptive it's been in the automotive world, and the Tesla Model S must come out towards the top of your list, whether you love it or hate it. You have to agree that Tesla hit all the right notes with its electric luxury sedan in disrupting the status quo and reshaping how entire sections of the industry would follow.

In fact, you'll struggle to name many other production cars that have had so much effect on vehicle engineering updates, sales processes, and value propositions. Here, Tesla was able to challenge almost every assumption that many in the modern auto industry had relied on for decades.

Clearly, the Model S did not introduce the concept of electric vehicles to the mainstream, but it certainly pivoted the conversation. Most EVs up until that point were small and utilitarian or transitional hybrids that seemed to be more of a steppingstone rather than a destination in itself. But Tesla took a different route, by launching its Model S as a desirable, high-performance, and, crucially, long-range luxury sedan.

The company used an entirely different marketing and production approach with a car that improved after you bought it and evolved without time-consuming visits to a dealership. Software was the primary product, with hardware as the platform, and with its approach, Tesla delivered one of the most consequential vehicles in modern automotive history.

The Tesla Model S Changed The Modern Car Industry

Back in the early 2010s, people tended to look at electric vehicles with suspicion. Those folk were worried about range and struggled to find places to charge these cars, and most manufacturers, truth be told, were similarly hesitant. Those companies often felt that if you did promote an EV, you’d need to major on its efficiency and environmental responsibility, instead of trying to sell it on either desire or performance.

And against that backdrop, the market was ripe for disruption, which is exactly what Tesla did when it introduced its Model S. Right out of the box, the car came with an EPA-rated range of 265 miles in its 85-kWh configuration, and all of a sudden, electric vehicles became practical. You could realistically replace a gas-powered car as your primary mode of transportation without compromising your lifestyle.

The Model S was also quite satisfying to drive, and it actually handled like the large luxury sedan it was meant to be. Tesla had placed the heavy batteries low down with a skateboard-style layout to give it good handling characteristics, and you'd also get a surprising amount of instant electric torque.

As the company rolled out higher output variants, those acceleration figures became so eye-opening that you could place a car like this alongside some of the more established sports sedans. And unlike many of those rivals, a driver could access Model S performance easily and repeatedly with minimal drama.

Legacy automakers sat up and took notice immediately, and in boardrooms around the world they started to plot a reply. In the Model S, they could now see that electric propulsion wasn't something they should quietly explore within experimental sub-brands or as compliance cars, but something that could even give them a competitive advantage. The Model S had shifted the conversation away from regulatory necessities and ethical choices towards aspirational products, making other manufacturers invest quickly and publicly commit to electric futures, often long before they were really ready.

The Technology That Rewrote The Rules Of Car Ownership

The Tesla Model S certainly scored in terms of range and performance, but perhaps its most significant contribution to the story comes in the form of its software. Now you could get over-the-air updates at scale, so owners could change the capabilities of their car rather than having to deal with a fixed factory-set state.

Some of these software updates arrived in the background and often overnight, delivering refinements, new features, efficiency gains, and even outright performance improvements. Owners were often surprised to find that they now had upgraded navigation systems without a visit to a dealer or could enjoy an unexpectedly brand-new user interface.

Tesla often optimized the car's energy management system long after delivery, and in some cases, the vehicle actually became objectively quicker or more efficient simply due to those software patches.

It's hard to appreciate just how seismic these changes were in the mass-market automotive world. After all, a car like the Model S was no longer just a static asset that basically declined or depreciated as soon as you took ownership. Instead, it was now more of a living product and closer in philosophy to a smartphone than a traditional appliance.

Tesla reinforced its novel approach with its interior design, as instead of dozens of physical buttons or switches, you now had a massive central touchscreen. All the vehicle controls were now within a software-defined interface and while it may have looked neat and tidy, it certainly proved controversial. However, today, digital dashboards, central infotainment systems, and configurable displays are everywhere across the industry. And manufacturers no longer look at this as excess minimalism as they often adopt the principle entirely.

In later years, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would acknowledge that certain compliance updates or recalls could take place remotely due to this type of software-first architecture. And that this could fundamentally alter how manufacturers dealt with safety issues or, indeed, how quickly they could deploy any fixes as needed. The Model S debuted this technology for mainstream use and changed the entire concept of vehicle ownership in doing so.

Sources: Tesla, NHTSA, University of Michigan.

Read the full article on CarBuzz

This article originally appeared on CarBuzz and is republished here with permission.