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Wiki Decoding Tesla Model S VINs
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- Delivery Model S Ordering Production vin
breser
AutoPilot Nostradamus
Production, 85 kWh battery, RWD, LHD, vehicle. The only thing we don't know what it means in that is the 7. EU and Austrialian orders have been getting 6 and 7's in the 6th digit of the VIN which is for the restraint system. Tesla hasn't updated the NHTSA VIN decoding with this information, so presumably vehicles with those values are not being delivered in the US.
breser
AutoPilot Nostradamus
I'd bet on 6 meaning the taller seats and 7 meaning the active bonnet functionality that was mentioned in the Euro NCAP test results. Higher numbers being inclusive of everything in the lower numbers.
Vger
Active Member
I have just scanned through this thread and find nothing that states a hypothesis or solid info about what happens at and after Model S #100,000. At the rate Tesla is moving now, that car will be built sometime this spring or early summer. I am interested in any facts, theories or conjecture on the subject. Forgive me if I missed the info elsewhere.
Until production exceeds about 100,000 per year I don't see any reason they can't just reset the sequence number to 1 as soon as they get there. The model year will still be shown as 2015 so the VIN will still be unique. In any event that is just speculation.
breser
AutoPilot Nostradamus
Well first of all Tesla filed a new VIN decoding for 2015 (but there's nothing significant in there over the old one other than the restraint system 3 code has been replaced with 4):
ftp://ftp.nhtsa.dot.gov/mfrmail/ORG10373.pdf
Tesla currently is using the last 6 digits of the VIN as enough to be unique. Before you could name the cars they'd show up as the last 6 digits of the VIN in the mobile apps. The last digit before the serial is the build phase code (which for most people is going to be P or S).
If I were them I'd add another build phase code to the current set:
A = Alpha Prototype
B = Beta Prototype (filing with NHTSA shows this as F but I think it's just a messed up scan of the document since it conflicts with Founder below)
R = Release Candidate Vehicle
P = Production Vehicle
S = Signature Series Vehicle
F = Founder Series Vehicle
So I'd just add the following after 99999 was assigned:
1 = Production Vehicle (2nd 100,000 cars)
That would conveniently make the last 6 digits look like the serial.
They don't really need that field anymore for the Model S anyway. I'd figure by the time they're past 100k cars they're done with Signature cars, though they could add another letter for Signature cars in the 2nd 100,000 cars if they start selling them in some new market.
The other option would be to put out a new encoding that specifies if the build phase digit is numeric then it is part of the serial and is a production vehicle.
The very last option would be to change the WMI (World Manufacturer Identication) but I doubt they'll do that.
breser
AutoPilot Nostradamus
Found a much more definitive answer. Tesla has already said what they'll do.
From their very first VIN encoding filing for the Model S (PDF):
From their very first VIN encoding filing for the Model S (PDF):
breser
AutoPilot Nostradamus
I updated the wiki post near the top of this thread with the links to the vin decoding documents (they were burried in the middle of the thread and hard for people to find).
Wiki post is here:
Decoding Tesla Model S VINs
Wiki post is here:
Decoding Tesla Model S VINs
Vger
Active Member
Thanks!!
I still like the proposal of just making the "build phase" numeric after P99999. That makes the sequence simpler to communicate all the way up to a million cars. But that is just me!
breser
AutoPilot Nostradamus
Yup. Per law the last 6 digits of the VIN are production number (otherwise known as serial or sequence). Tesla just happens to be using one digit for the build phase. My proposal was to undo that and continue to use base-10 encoding. Tesla's plan is base 33 for the most significant digit and base 10 for the rest, which is a very strange design. Frankly even using base-16 for the whole serial number would have been easier for a human to read and gotten them 1,048,575 cars out of just 5 digits.
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Just to clarify that decoder does not list the actual factory options on the car, just the possible options on the car. Which is presumably some sort of database someone has built to keep track of which options are possible on specific make/model/years of cars. I'd guess it probably can't tell which vehicles can actually have which option sets since Tesla changes these regularly.
gg_got_a_tesla
Model S: VIN 65513, Model 3: VIN 1913
Just a footnote about the current VINs: was supercharging at the factory on Sunday and saw an S85, VIN P73971 awaiting delivery. At the current pace of production, P99999 will be hit in about 5-6 months.
breser
AutoPilot Nostradamus
That's almost certainly a false assumption. A large amount of VINs are tied up waiting for 85D production. That VIN in exactly 6900 ahead of my 85D VIN. Given the VINs people have posted I'd also bet that car was made very fast after VIN assignment, which isn't the norm for most cars. So I think your analysis is just as flawed as Green Car Reports extrapolation of the number of cars produced being 70k already.
Given that VIN assignment is not exactly tied to production pace if we had some VINs and when they were assigned (which we do over on the spreadsheets) we could do some work to figure out how soon they'll get P99999 for assignment. But since they don't immediately assign numbers until cars are close to production I would bet it'd still be a month or 2 more than your estimate. Production is probably 2-3 months higher than your estimate.
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gg_got_a_tesla
Model S: VIN 65513, Model 3: VIN 1913
^ probably right, @breser. Also wonder if they may hold the S at the current production rate for a bit longer while scaling up the X's production.
Agree. I don't really see the point of having to designate the the car is a normal production car.
felixtb
RsEU502,Sp+14274,XpEUSig4
just got my new VIN: (EU) 5YJSA8*********** and I have an 8 as the sixth digit. I have the new executive rear seats on order.... maybe this can help to understand better what the digit is for.........
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Digit 6 new value "7"
I got the following VIN:
5YJSA7H20FFP7xxxx
It seems that digit 6 has the value "7" which was not part of the initial information quoted above - I guess this can be due to child seats being an option for my vehicle? Otherwise it is an european delivery...
:smile:
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Or perhaps the next gen seats have a different airbag configuration? That model is with nextgen seats.
I got the following VIN:
5YJSA7H20FFP7xxxx
It seems that digit 6 has the value "7" which was not part of the initial information quoted above - I guess this can be due to child seats being an option for my vehicle? Otherwise it is an european delivery...
:smile:
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Or perhaps the next gen seats have a different airbag configuration? That model is with nextgen seats.
breser
AutoPilot Nostradamus
Turns out the last 4 digits of the VIN must be numeric only in the least restrictive rules on the VIN encoding (EU/ISO rules) so using base-16 (hexadecimal) wouldn't work:
L_2011008EN.01000101.xml
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