Decoding Tesla Roadster VINs

[TEG]

VFX, your car had an '08 VIN, correct?

Yes, I think his was the last 2008...

 

[TEG]

So I wonder which was the first with a 2011 VIN.

1192 and 1193 are 2011s.

I think they may skip some when switching model years (leave a gap in case you need it later?), so you might have to go back a ways further to find the last of the 2010s...

 

[bonnie]

Hey Bonnie,

Is it gold colored?

It SHOULD be, considering ... . Arctic white, black carbon fiber accents, black wheels.

 

[mattjs33]

Thanks for sharing your VIN Bonnie!

TEG alerted me to this; So I did some more research today.

As of right now there are eleven 2011 Tesla Roadsters with records on CarFax. The last 2010 is #1169. The first 2011 is #1170. So they are going pretty much sequentially. Like TEG says, I've seen other makes where they skip, and some others actually overlap at model year changes. I have not yet found any Canadian 2011's.

 

[vfx]

Yeah I'm the last 08' with VIN 500. The first 2010 with all the interior cost cutting would be #501 (I was told there would be NO skipping) . The next car I know of is the Dr with #516 and he received his about a month after me as Tesla said they were backordered on a single part.

Good question on what VIN is the first 2011. Don't most makers start delivering a given year in the prior September?

 

[vfx]

It SHOULD be, considering ... . Arctic white, black carbon fiber accents, black wheels.

We have new one similar here in LA (with CF top) It is gorgeous.

 

[mattjs33]

Good question on what VIN is the first 2011. Don't most makers start delivering a given year in the prior September?

There's a common misconception that model years start on a certain date. A manufacturer can pretty much start a new model year whenever they want, provided it's not more than one New Year's day ahead of the calendar year. Thus there were 2012 Lexus LFAs delivered in February. Ford began shipping the 1997 F150's on Jan. 2, 1996, which means a lot of them have 1995 production dates. In the U.S., the vehicle's model year is the regulations for that year that it's built to.

 

[bonnie]

I understand that manufacturers may start a new model year much earlier. But I ordered my Roadster on 11/18, and the sales contract said it would be a 2010 model. Date of manufacture on the paperwork is January 1, 2011 - and the car has a 2011 VIN. So while they may play with the date, in this case, it looks like that window was pretty small.

 

[S-2000 Roadster]

I wonder how much of the "greater profit margin" on the non-U.S. Roadsters is purely due to not shipping the glider a third of the way across the planet.

 

[markwj]

I wonder how much of the "greater profit margin" on the non-U.S. Roadsters is purely due to not shipping the glider a third of the way across the planet.

In Hong Kong, the base price of a roadster is ~US$134k + ~US$4k of 'location charge' (which I am told covers the shipping of the completed car UK->HK). So, still US$133k vs US$109k. Hong Kong is tax free, so that is not relevant.

I think Tesla are just charging whatever they can get away with in each market. It is completely up to them, as a public company their goal is to make money, but somewhat at odds with the company philosophy for being a catalyst for change and accelerating the adoption of EVs.

 

[TEG]

I wonder how much of the "greater profit margin" on the non-U.S. Roadsters is purely due to not shipping the glider a third of the way across the planet.

But they have to ship battery packs and drive-trains the other direction, right?
The pack and drive-train together weight about as much as the glider!

 

[markwj]

But they have to ship battery packs and drive-trains the other direction, right?
The pack and drive-train together weight about as much as the glider!

I guess it depends if they 'ship'. Sending in quantity by sea is a tiny fraction of the cost of airfreight. Volume of the battery packs is also significantly less (and for sea freight, it is volume that matters).

 

[vfx]

Size and fragility might be in play here too.
It's been said before that air freight is costing Tesla near sea freight rates.

 

[doug]

I wonder how much of the "greater profit margin" on the non-U.S. Roadsters is purely due to not shipping the glider a third of the way across the planet.

But they have to ship battery packs and drive-trains the other direction, right?
The pack and drive-train together weight about as much as the glider!

That's an over estimate isn't it? Curb weight of the Roadster is about 2700 lbs. Battery pack is about 900, motor 70.

At any rate, back when battery pack assembly was moved from Thailand to San Carlos it was suggested the main reason was to cut the shipping time (high value component sitting on a slow boat). For the same reason, battery assembly was to also be set up somewhere in Europe (probably UK) for EU cars. So if they went through with that plan (granted from back in 2008), they aren't having to ship battery packs across the Atlantic. I suspect being able to assemble a complete car in the same region of the world does have some cost advantage.

 

[TEG]

That's an over estimate isn't it? Curb weight of the Roadster is about 2700 lbs. Battery pack is about 900, motor 70...

Yes, I know it is a little less, but my point was it is a substantial amount of material to send the other way (assuming it would come from California).
Also, along with the 900+ lbs for the pack + 70 or so for the motor, you also have PEM, transaxle, etc.

For the sake of argument, perhaps 1600 for the bare glider vs 1100 for pack+drivetrain?

Also my point was just that there is some remaining international shipping expense even if you only deliver Roadsters on the continent where the 'gliders' are made.

 

[TEG]

And yes, if they aren't sending more gilders to North America, one would hope as much of the rest can be sourced 'locally' (such a battery pack) rather than coming all the way from California. I don't know the answer. I sortof assumed they were coming from California, but hopefully not.
The cells themselves are likely still coming from Asia regardless.

 

[Eberhard]

But they have to ship battery packs and drive-trains the other direction, right?
The pack and drive-train together weight about as much as the glider!

When i picked up my roadster in Hethel, the told me, they ship drivetrain and pack in containers by sea because of weight.

 

[smorgasbord]

Battery pack is about 900, motor 70.

According to Tesla's web site, the battery pack is closer 990 lbs (wikipedia says 992) and the motor is 115 lbs (wikipedia says 70). I don't know what the final drive converter weighs.

 

[doug]

For the sake of argument, perhaps 1600 for the bare glider vs 1100 for pack+drivetrain?

Also my point was just that there is some remaining international shipping expense even if you only deliver Roadsters on the continent where the 'gliders' are made.

Yeah, I understood that. Good point.

When i picked up my roadster in Hethel, the told me, they ship drivetrain and pack in containers by sea because of weight.

I guess they never went through with that EU pack assembly plan then. Ultimately it probably didn't make sense given the Roadster's volume.

I managed to dig up what what siry had to say back then. (He was Tesla head of marketing at the time.)

The switch of ESS manufacturing to the US from Thailand has been completed for some time and all sheets coming off the line for production are assembled in San Carlos. So there is no delay to the program to make this switch.

The main thing you need to think about when it comes to battery production is that it isn't the labor cost that is most critical to the equation but rather the extraordinary value of the inventory sitting on a slow boat from Thailand to the UK and then back to the US. By manufacturing here is San Carlos the time from production to fitting into a car and then delivery to customers goes from many months to a very short period of time. Perhaps a few weeks. The amount of working capital required to fund this goes down by tens of millions of dollars.

For the same reasons, we will look to replicate our sheet assembly in the UK or Europe somewhere to do finishing for euro-spec cars. Replicating the assembly facility is not hard to do.

The cells are still sourced from Japan, but purchased in the U.S. from the manufacturer.

 

[markwj]

Hong Kong base 2.5 roadster, RHD, delivered to Hong Kong in the spring of 2011 and built completely in UK.
VIN is SFZRE8B15B3000569.

Italian base 2.5 roadster, LHD, in the process of being delivered to Italy in the Spring/Summer of 2011 and built completely in UK.
VIN is SFZRE2B15B3000570.

TEG decoded the HK VIN as:

SFZRE8B15B3000569
00000000011111111
12345678901234567
SFZ - Tesla manufacturer string for Hethel, UK built cars
SFZRE - Roadster Convertible=RE
SFZRE8 - region code, 8=Hong Kong (1=USA, 2 or 3=Europe, 6=Canada)
SFZRE8B - restraint system type B (not sure what B signifies as I am used to seeing a "1" here. Could this be used to indicated RHD?)
SFZRE8B1 - Motor type 1 (I am not sure what type of motor "1" signifies. Did they use this code to indicate RHD vs LHD?)
SFZRE8B1? - Check digit
SFZRE8B1?B - B=2011 model
SFZRE8B1?B3 - Factory - 3=Hethel, UK
SFZRE8B15B3000569 - UK produced car #569.

Clearly, the only difference (apart from sequence) is the 6th character - "8" for the HK car and "2" for the Italian car.

Looking through other bits of this thread, I can see:
1 USA (LHD)
2 includes Italy (LHD), Denmark (LHD)
6 Canada (LHD)
8 includes Hong Kong (RHD)

It would be interesting to see what a UK car has in that 6th character. Also, Japan?

[ edit: corrected to fix Denmark code is 2 not 3 ]