2023 Tesla Model S

The volume trim is the dual-motor AWD car, renamed from Long Range during 2023. Its peak output carries over unchanged from the mid-2021 refresh and is far above the top of the sedan band.

Tesla does not publish a torque figure. Spec aggregators agree on about 723 lb-ft for the post-refresh dual-motor drivetrain, and that drivetrain is unchanged for 2023.

Tesla quotes 3.1 s for the dual-motor trim, which puts it near the quickest end of the sedan band. Instrumented tests of the dual-motor car land in the low-3-second range.

Power delivery from both motors is instant and linear, with no lag and no engine transitions. Reviewers consistently rank its throttle response among the most immediate in the class.

Each motor drives through a single-speed reduction gear, so there is no shifting, hunting or drone to fault.

Dual-motor AWD is standard on every 2023 Model S, and no RWD version is offered. The Plaid adds a third motor with torque vectoring across the rear axle.

Every Model S is battery-electric, with no gas, hybrid or PHEV option. The only choice is how many motors and how much output: dual-motor or Plaid.

About 28 kWh/100 mi is excellent for a full-size luxury sedan, thanks to the low-drag body. The figure is for the volume 19-inch-wheel configuration.

This is the EPA city rating for the dual-motor car on 19-inch wheels. Regenerative braking helps, but the car's mass narrows the city advantage EVs usually have.

The low drag coefficient keeps highway efficiency only about 7% below city, an unusually small gap for an EV.

405 miles of EPA range clears any practical road-trip threshold. Only the long-range Lucid Air trims rank above it in the segment.

250 kW is quick, but it is the ceiling of the 400V architecture. 800V rivals such as the Taycan, e-tron GT and Lucid Air accept 270–350 kW.

The charging curve tapers early after its peak, so a 10–80% session averages only about 130 kW. That puts the time near the middle of the band.

This is EPA's standard-assumption energy cost for the volume 19-inch-wheel configuration. It is a fraction of the fuel bill for the premium-fuel rivals in this class.

There is no fuel grade to worry about, home charging is cheap, and the native NACS port gives Plug and Charge on the densest US fast-charging network, with navigation-linked preconditioning. It is held below the ceiling because a ~30 min stop and a ~100 kWh pack make public charging slower and pricier than on 800V rivals.

NHTSA has not crash-tested the 2021-onward refreshed Model S, so neither 2023 release (Early or Later) carries an overall, frontal or side star rating — only the calculated 5-star rollover figure. Under the framework definition 0 means never rated; the pre-2021 car's 5-star result is not carried over.

The 2023 Model S earned no IIHS award (Model Y was Tesla's only 2023 Top Safety Pick) and IIHS has published no crashworthiness results for the refreshed body. The only IIHS data on the nameplate is the pre-refresh car, mostly Good but Acceptable in driver small overlap with Poor headlights, so it sits in the 'untested with known concerns' band, below crash-tested rivals.

Every 2023 Model S (AWD and Plaid) has the same standard Autopilot: Traffic-Aware Cruise Control, Autosteer, automatic emergency braking, forward collision warning, lane departure avoidance, emergency lane departure avoidance and blind-spot warning. Nothing is locked to a trim. It is capped below 80 because rear cross-traffic alert/braking and safe-exit warning aren't offered, and German full-size rivals fit both as standard.

The 2023 car is camera-only: radar was dropped from S/X in 2022, and Later Release cars also lost ultrasonic sensors and moved to HW4. The nameplate's legacy IIHS vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention rating was Superior, but there's no pedestrian or current-protocol result. A camera-sensing AEB recall and an open NHTSA investigation into phantom braking keep it below rated rivals.

Camera-based blind-spot collision warning is standard, and Autosteer won't make a lane change into an occupied lane. But it only warns, and there's no rear cross-traffic alert/braking or safe-exit warning. Later Release cars also lost the ultrasonic sensors, leaving the thinnest cross-traffic package among full-size luxury sedans.

Standard Autosteer is widely reviewed as among the smoothest, most confident lane-centering systems on sale. It loses points for abrupt hand-backs where lane lines fade, occasional ping-pong on straight roads, and the reduced Autosteer speed cap on Vision-only cars during 2022–2023.

Standard Traffic-Aware Cruise Control covers the full speed range with stop-and-go and merges with Autosteer into one Autopilot mode. Phantom braking is a documented failure mode on vision-only cars. Automatic lane changes and Navigate on Autopilot need paid Enhanced Autopilot or FSD. A December 2023 recall added stricter driver-engagement controls.

In model year 2023, Autopilot and FSD Beta both required hands on the wheel (torque-sensing nag), and recall 23V838 tightened that further. True hands-free (eyes-on, cabin-camera monitored) driving only arrived with FSD v12.4 in mid-2024, an over-the-air update after this model year that also needed a paid FSD purchase or subscription.

LED matrix headlights with automatic high beams are standard, but US cars did not have adaptive-beam glare reduction enabled in 2023. IIHS has never rated the refreshed car's lights, and the only rating the nameplate holds is Poor, so there's no evidence of Good-rated lighting.

Forward sightlines are good, thanks to a low cowl, a large windshield and the glass roof. The raked liftback glass and thick C-pillars leave a large rear blind zone, and the camera help is thin: no front bumper camera, no 360° view, and Later Release 2023 cars lost ultrasonic park sensors before vision-based Park Assist arrived.

Two outboard sets of lower anchors and three top tethers are workable, and a flat rear floor and generous legroom help. Against that, the lower anchors sit deep in a bolstered seat bight, there's no centre LATCH position, and the fastback roofline and door opening crowd tall rear-facing seats.

Five-seat liftback on both 2023 trims; no third-row option was ever sold on the refreshed car.

Generous front headroom for a low liftback, aided by the standard glass roof.

Mid-pack front legroom for the class.

Good rear headroom despite the fastback roofline.

Tight rear legroom for a full-size luxury car, well short of G90/EQS, with a low rear cushion.

The liftback body out-hauls every conventional-trunk rival, and there is a frunk besides.

Liftback hatch, front trunk, under-floor rear well and a large center console with wireless pads give standout everyday storage; door pockets are modest.

Front seats are supportive and widely adjustable; the low rear bench with poor thigh support holds it back for a full-size car.

Standard adaptive air suspension rides firm but fairly comfortably on 19-in wheels; 21-in wheels add impact harshness.

No engine noise and active road-noise reduction, but road and wind noise from frameless glass and wide tires remain audible — short of the EQS/G90 benchmark.

Heated/ventilated front seats, heated rear seats, heated wheel, tri-zone climate, HEPA filtration and app pre-conditioning standard on both trims.

Tesla cut the Model S price repeatedly during the 2023 model year; the final listed MSRP (reported by Edmunds/KBB as the 2023 price) is used as the entry figure, but early-year buyers paid up to ~$30,000 more. Far above the $55,000 sedan band ceiling either way.

All-Wheel Drive is the volume trim; Plaid is a low-volume halo. Because the list price fell ~$30,000 within the model year, a mid-year price (where most 2023 deliveries landed) plus a typical ~$1,500–$2,500 paint upcharge represents what a typical buyer paid better than the year-end floor; FSD is excluded.

No oil or fluid services and regen-spared brakes keep routine spend low, but staggered tires on a heavy car, air-suspension and door-handle/MCU repairs out of warranty are expensive; sources disagree sharply so a mid-point near Edmunds' maintenance-only figure is used.

Model S is among the steepest-depreciating nameplates, and 2023 cars bought before the September cut lost value immediately as Tesla repriced new cars; later 2024/2025 refreshes and end of production in 2026 add pressure. Set below the fleet-wide iSeeCars figure.

Tesla's Basic Vehicle Limited Warranty is 4 years or 50,000 miles — level with German luxury rivals, behind Genesis.

Model S carries Tesla's longest battery-and-drive-unit coverage on both trims.

No prepaid scheduled maintenance; standing benefits are roadside assistance during the basic warranty, a Premium Connectivity trial and OTA updates. Some 2023 buyers got a meaningful perk — 3 years of free Supercharging on deliveries April 20–June 30, 2023, plus Supercharging-exchange and referral offers later in the year — but it was time-limited and non-transferable.

$88,380 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (34% retained, or about $30,049) leaves about $58,331 in depreciation. Add the projected $5,000 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $63,331 in total.

Consumer Reports rates the 2023 Model S 2 out of 5 for predicted reliability and calls it less reliable than other cars from the same model year. Owners flag in-car electronics, the drive system and power equipment. J.D. Power's 2023 IQS has Tesla near the bottom of the field. Both sources point to below-average reliability.

In this period Tesla sat in the bottom third on dependability and initial quality. It ranked 34th of 37 in the 2023 IQS, and CR placed it among the less reliable brands. Within the brand, the Model 3 and Model Y rated average while the S and X rated below average. Tesla's VDS standing improved in later years, which puts it at the top edge of the low band rather than at the floor.

NHTSA lists 13 campaigns covering the 2023 Model S. Several touch safety systems: - FSD Beta (23V085) and Autopilot Autosteer controls (23V838) - cabin doors that can unlock in a crash (23V862) - front seat belts not properly connected (23V488) - two airbag hardware faults (wrong airbag fitted; a driver airbag cushion that can tear) - forward and rear camera faults Many of these were fixed over the air, and none involves the battery or drive unit. Even so, the count and the safety content are well above typical.

The Model S has the longest high-mileage track record of any US EV. It has no conventional transmission, and packs commonly keep about 85–90% of capacity past 200k miles. The 2023 car carries over the 2021-refresh dual-motor and Plaid drive units, and no drive-unit or battery recall has been issued. It stays out of the top band because CR owners flag the drive system and because of the early-generation drive-unit replacement history.

The Palladium cabin is attractive and well equipped, with a full-width wood or carbon dash, a 17-inch landscape screen, a rear screen and 22-speaker audio. At full-size-luxury prices, though, the screen-first layout, sparse switchgear and yoke-era controls trail the A8, i7 and S-Class for richness and tactile quality.

Assembly is better than in the 2021–2022 refresh-launch years. Tesla's initial-quality problem rate is still about a third above the industry average, and owners continue to report paint flaws, panel-gap and trim misalignment, and rattles at delivery. That is a real shortfall at this price.

Coverage is adequate for metro owners. Mobile service and app scheduling handle many jobs without a shop visit. Outside major metros, Tesla's company-owned service centers are far sparser than any franchised luxury network. Waits for appointments and especially for collision repair were widely reported in this period, although they had eased from the 2022 backlog peak.

Low-volume production means thin parts stocking and a small aftermarket. Collision parts flow only through Tesla's own distribution, which had documented backorders. The car's costly hardware raises repair severity: air suspension, a large high-voltage pack, and aluminum structure. Minimal routine maintenance only partly offsets this.

Very large center screen standard on both 2023 trims.

AMD Ryzen-powered UI is fast and clean, but gear selection, mirrors, vents and wipers route through the screen or touch buttons.

Tesla offers neither Apple CarPlay nor Android Auto on any trim.

Excellent native navigation with Supercharger trip planning and live stall counts; voice commands cover nav/media/climate but are not conversational and recognition is mixed.

A 22-speaker, 960-watt system with active noise cancelling is standard and well reviewed.

A 12.3-in driver display is standard; configurability trails Mercedes/BMW, though the round wheel now default from Jan 2023 no longer partly frames it awkwardly like the yoke.

Industry-leading whole-vehicle OTA updates that regularly add features, including Vision Park Assist added by software in late 2023.

Polished free app with phone key, remote climate, charging control, Sentry Mode viewing and Summon.

Two wireless pads and multiple USB-C ports front and rear; no 120V household outlet.

Phone-as-key, key card and fob, auto-presenting handles, power liftgate and app-operated frunk.

A transition year: early-2023 builds kept ultrasonic sensors, later builds dropped them and had no parking-distance aid until vision Park Assist arrived by OTA in late 2023; no front bumper camera.

No head-up display is offered on any Model S.

The big liftback swallows strollers, but tight rear legroom, a low roofline and only two lower-anchor sets make car-seat duty awkward for a full-size car.

Standard Autopilot, AEB and blind-spot warning, but the 2023 car has no NHTSA frontal/side or IIHS rating and no rear cross-traffic alert.

Heated rear seats, rear 8-in screen, tri-zone climate and big cargo space, held back by tight rear legroom.

Smooth one-pedal driving and Autopilot in traffic; the round wheel is default from January 2023, but stalkless touch controls still add daily friction.

Very efficient for its size and power and cheap per mile on home charging.

A 197-in, 78-in-wide body, 40.3-ft turning circle and — on later 2023 builds — no parking sensors until a late-2023 OTA make tight parking work.

No US tow rating or factory hitch; useful only for hauling boxes in the liftback.

A luxury sedan with below-average predicted reliability; not suited to hard use.

No AC outlet, hitch or rack ecosystem; the large hatch is the only work aid.

405 miles of EPA range, Supercharger network access and Autopilot make it an outstanding long-haul car, limited by rear legroom and some road noise.

AWD and adjustable air suspension help on gravel, and Camp Mode is a plus, but no towing or roof rails and a low body keep it pavement-oriented.

Liftback with folding rear seats, frunk and under-floor well hauls far more than sedan rivals; no hitch or roof rails.

Low center of gravity and adaptive air suspension give quick turn-in and little body roll, though its mass shows when pushed.

Quick and precise but numb; the round wheel default from January 2023 removes the yoke's hand-over-hand awkwardness for most buyers.

Strong, consistent stops with well-calibrated regen, though base brakes fade on track use.

Instant, seamless dual-motor response with smooth one-pedal regen.

Near-silent motors with only faint whine under hard acceleration.

A wide turning circle for a sedan, at the bad end of the band.

Wide seat/wheel adjustment and excellent forward view, and the round wheel is back as default, but signals, wipers and gear selection remain touch/screen controls and rear visibility is restricted.

Thrilling straight-line acceleration and tidy handling, but limited steering feel and sound make it more fast than engaging.

The All-Wheel Drive car is essentially fully specified: 17-in center screen plus rear screen, 22-speaker audio, adaptive air suspension, dual-motor AWD, heated/ventilated front seats, glass roof and Autopilot — equipment S-Class/EQS/7 Series rivals charge thousands more for.

670 hp, ~3.1-s 0–60 and ~405 mi EPA range for a list price that fell from $104,990 to $74,990 during the year undercut the EQS, i7 and Taycan substantially; held back by the early-year pricing and the fact that every price cut devalued earlier buyers' cars.

Two trims (All-Wheel Drive, Plaid) on one battery and body; a cheaper Standard Range variant appeared briefly in August 2023 at $78,490 and was withdrawn about two weeks later. Options limited to paint, wheels, interior colour, yoke/wheel and FSD.

Likely still the best-selling full-size luxury EV sedan in the US, but a low-volume, declining nameplate — Tesla reports Model S/X only as a combined 'other models' line (~69,000 global deliveries in 2023), and repeated price cuts signalled soft demand.

Tesla remained high-mindshare with strong owner loyalty and the Supercharger halo, and the Model S/Plaid nameplate kept flagship cachet, but brand polarisation was growing and luxury buyers rate S-Class/7 Series prestige higher.

No dealer markup and transparent pricing; buyers benefited from repeated list-price cuts, three years of free Supercharging on spring-2023 deliveries and referral/exchange offers. No federal EV credit (over the IRA $55,000 sedan cap) and no negotiation, and early buyers effectively overpaid as prices fell.

2023 is a carry-over year of the 2021 'Palladium' facelift (new interior, horizontal screen, Plaid powertrain) within a generation dating to 2012; OTA updates keep software current but the platform and exterior are aging.

Reviewers praise range, efficiency, Supercharger access and Plaid's extraordinary acceleration, but consistently criticise ride quality, interior materials, build quality and the yoke; it rarely wins luxury-sedan comparisons against the EQS, Lucid Air or i7.