What defines a 2012, 2013 or 2014 car?

[EarlyAdopter]

My car is a 2012 it was manufactured in December 2012 and delivered in January 2013.
if a car finishes manufacture on or before Dec 31, 2013 at 12:59 PM it is a 2013.
if a car finishes manufacture on or after Jan 1, 2014 at 12:00 AM it is a 2014.

Not quite, as the model year is encoded in the 10th digit of the VIN. So it's more accurate to say it's when the car starts manufacture, i.e. when the VIN is issued.

 

[brianman]

Not quite, as the model year is encoded in the 10th digit of the VIN. So it's more accurate to say it's when the car starts manufacture, i.e. when the VIN is issued.

Minor nitpick: I'm not sure we know that the blue and green happen at the same time. More specifically, I think the VIN can come before or after VIN manufacture start; depending on circumstances/logistics.

 

[Gizmotoy]

I've known my VIN for a month, and won't actually enter production for another week or two. The main question would be do they guess that your car will enter/complete production in 2014 and assign a 2014 VIN, potentially in November/December? I'm not sure.

 

[JST]

I've known my VIN for a month, and won't actually enter production for another week or two. The main question would be do they guess that your car will enter/complete production in 2014 and assign a 2014 VIN, potentially in November/December? I'm not sure.

I think that they have a pretty good handle on when cars will be built--they may not tell us, and those schedules may change slightly, but by the time they assign a VIN my guess is that they have the factory sequencing pretty well laid out. Note that the schedule that they give us may only be tangentially related to their own internal planning.

My further guess on that is that if you get a 2013 VIN, you will get a car built in 2013--but there's no reason that you have to. I suppose there could be a last minute change to your VIN, but there's also the possibility that some 2013 model year cars get built in calendar year 2014.

Without access to internal Tesla planning documents, it's pretty hard to say.

 

[MartinAustin]

Adding confusion, rather than simplifying things, my sales associate Jason at The Domain says:

"If your car is received by the service center in 2013, it will be a 2013 Model.

If you are wanting a 2014, I would wait until the end of November to place your order, that way no matter what happens you’ll received a car in the Model year you want it." (won't contribute to Q4 deliveries though! -Martin)