2024 Tesla Model S

Scored on the dual-motor Model S All-Wheel Drive, the volume configuration of the two-trim 2024 lineup; the Plaid is a low-volume halo. At 670 hp the base car is above the top of the sedan band (130–520 hp), so the item clamps to 100.

Combined torque from the two permanent-magnet motors, available from zero rpm, which puts it well above the top of the sedan band. Confidence is LOW because Tesla publishes no US torque rating.

Tesla quotes 3.1 s for the volume AWD trim, quicker than the base version of every full-size luxury rival (EQS 450+ ~5.9 s, BMW i7 xDrive60 ~4.5 s, Lucid Air Pure ~4.5 s).

Thrust is immediate, seamless and nearly silent, with a large passing reserve. It sits below the e-tron GT, i7 and EQS because motor whine and wind noise are more audible, and the 2024 car does not yet have the acoustic and NVH revisions of the mid-2025 refresh.

A single-speed reduction gear on each axle leaves nothing to hunt, shift or drone. It is held short of the i7 because regeneration strength is not selectable, so the one-pedal calibration is fixed.

Dual-motor all-wheel drive is standard across the 2024 lineup, with torque split electronically between axles. The Plaid adds rear torque vectoring through its twin rear motors. There are no terrain modes or low-range hardware.

The lineup is battery-electric only: two configurations (dual-motor AWD and tri-motor Plaid) on one ~100 kWh pack, with no gas, hybrid, PHEV or single-motor entry trim.

About 28 kWh/100 mi from a ~4,700 lb full-size luxury sedan is near the top of the EV field, mostly thanks to the low-drag body.

Regeneration and zero idle draw make city driving efficient, though the large pack and the car's mass narrow the usual EV city advantage.

The low drag coefficient keeps highway efficiency only about 9% below city, an unusually small gap among EVs and the main reason its road-trip range is strong.

402 miles comfortably clears the practical road-trip threshold. It comes in below the 410 miles of the mid-2025 refresh and well below the long-range Lucid Air trims that set the top of the band.

250 kW is quick in absolute terms, but it is the ceiling of the 400V architecture. 800V rivals (Lucid Air, Taycan, e-tron GT) accept 270–350 kW.

About 67 kWh has to go in across 10–80%, and the 400V pack's charging curve tapers early, so the session averages only ~130 kW.

At home-charging rates the energy cost is roughly a quarter of the fuel bill for the premium-fuel V8 and turbo-six sedans in this class.

There is no fuel grade to worry about, and the car has the best US public-charging access: a native NACS port with Plug and Charge on the Supercharger network, plus navigation-linked preconditioning. It is held below the ceiling because a ~31 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 the 2024 car has no 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 overall result is not carried over.

IIHS has published no crashworthiness ratings for the refreshed Model S, and it earned no 2024 TSP/TSP+; the Model Y was Tesla's only 2024 award. The nameplate's only IIHS data is the 2017 car, which was mostly Good but Acceptable in driver small overlap. It stays at the bottom of the 'no award' band and below untested-but-clean rivals.

No ADAS feature is limited to a trim. Autopilot (Traffic-Aware Cruise Control plus Autosteer), AEB, forward collision warning, lane departure avoidance, emergency lane departure avoidance and blind-spot warning are standard on both the 2024 AWD and Plaid. Held at 80 because rear cross-traffic alert/braking and safe-exit warning, which the German rivals fit as standard, are absent.

The 2024 Model S uses HW4 with Tesla Vision; ultrasonic sensors were dropped in 2023. The nameplate scored Superior in IIHS's legacy front crash prevention test, but there is no result under IIHS's current vehicle-to-vehicle or pedestrian protocols. Phantom-braking complaints and six open NHTSA investigations keep it below rivals that have been rated.

Camera-based blind-spot warning is standard, and the side-repeater camera feed shows on screen with the turn signal. It only warns, though, and there is no rear cross-traffic alert/braking or safe-exit warning, the thinnest cross-traffic package among full-size luxury sedans.

Standard Autosteer is among the smoothest lane-centering systems sold and holds the lane centre through highway curves. It loses points for abrupt hand-backs where lane markings fade and for occasional owner reports of lateral wander.

Standard Traffic-Aware Cruise Control covers the full speed range with stop-and-go and combines with Autosteer into one Autopilot mode. Phantom braking is a documented failure mode, and automatic lane changes and Navigate on Autopilot need paid Enhanced Autopilot or FSD.

During the 2024 model year, FSD (Supervised) v12.4 replaced the steering-wheel nag with cabin-camera monitoring on cars that have a cabin camera, including the HW4 Model S. That allows hands-off, eyes-on driving on highways and city streets. It scores below 2025 because it was a mid-year software change, it falls back to wheel nags in dim light or with sunglasses, it is a paid option, and it remains supervised.

Matrix LED headlights with automatic high beams are fitted on both trims. However, US cars did not have adaptive-beam glare reduction enabled in 2024 (it arrived with the June 2025 refresh), IIHS has never rated the refreshed car's lights, and the only rating the nameplate received was Poor.

Forward sightlines are good thanks to a low cowl and large glass roof, but the raked liftback glass and thick C-pillars leave a large rear blind zone. Camera help is limited on the 2024 car: there is no front bumper camera (added in June 2025) and no 360° view, and Vision-only Park Assist replaced the ultrasonic sensors.

A flat rear floor, wide rear doors and generous legroom help with car seats. On the other hand, the lower anchors sit deep in the seat bight, there is no centre LATCH position, and the sloping roofline crowds tall rear-facing seats.

Five-seat liftback on both 2024 trims; the 2012–2026 generation never offered the old rear-facing jump seats on the refreshed car.

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

Mid-pack front legroom for the class.

Good rear headroom despite the fastback roofline, thanks to the glass roof.

Rear legroom is tight for a full-size luxury sedan — well short of G90/S-Class/EQS long-wheelbase rivals — and the low rear cushion compounds it.

The liftback body gives far more cargo room than any conventional-trunk rival, plus a frunk.

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 rear bench sits low with poor thigh support, which holds the item back for a full-size car.

Standard adaptive air suspension rides firm but fairly comfortably on 19-in wheels; the 21-in package adds impact harshness. Pre-dates the mid-2025 suspension bushing revisions.

No engine noise and active road-noise reduction, but road and wind noise from the frameless glass and large tires remain audible — quieter than most, short of the EQS/G90 benchmark. The 2025 refresh's added insulation is not on 2024 cars.

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

The 2024 model year carried over the September 2023 price cut that brought the dual-motor All-Wheel Drive car down to $74,990 — the lowest Model S entry price of the facelifted era. Still far above the $55,000 sedan band ceiling.

All-Wheel Drive is the volume trim by a wide margin; Plaid is a low-volume halo. A typical build adds a ~$1,500–$2,500 premium paint (only the base grey is no-cost) to the $76,380 delivered price; Full Self-Driving ($12,000 early 2024, $8,000 from April 2024) is excluded as an option most buyers did not take.

No fixed service intervals, no oil or transmission service and regen-spared brakes keep routine spend to cabin filters, brake fluid, tires and alignment, but staggered tires on a ~4,600 lb car wear quickly and out-of-warranty air-suspension, door-handle and MCU repairs carry luxury-tier prices. Sources disagree sharply, so a mid-point is used.

The Model S is among the steepest-depreciating US nameplates. A 2024 car starts from a lower transaction price than the 2022–2023 cars, but it is pressured by the June 2025 refresh (adaptive headlights, front camera, 410-mi range), the end of production in 2026, and non-transferable perks that used buyers don't get; retention is set slightly below iSeeCars' fleet figure.

Tesla's Basic Vehicle Limited Warranty is 4 years or 50,000 miles — level with BMW, Mercedes and Audi, behind Genesis's 5 years / 60,000 miles.

Model S carries Tesla's longest battery-and-drive-unit coverage, 8 years or 150,000 miles with a 70% capacity-retention floor, on both trims.

No prepaid scheduled maintenance; the standing benefits are roadside assistance for the 4-yr/50k warranty term, a Premium Connectivity trial and OTA updates. Perks for 2024 buyers were sporadic and timing-dependent — a one-month FSD trial in spring 2024, three months of free Supercharging and FSD on year-end inventory, and lifetime (non-transferable) free Supercharging only from December 13, 2024 — so most 2024 buyers got roadside only, below the 2025 car's Luxe-era bundle.

$78,380 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (37% retained, or about $29,001) leaves about $49,379 in depreciation. Add the projected $4,500 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $53,879 in total.

Consumer Reports puts the 2024 Model S at 30/100 predicted reliability, below the average for 2024 model-year cars, with complaints in in-car electronics, the drive system and power equipment. J.D. Power's 2024 IQS has Tesla at 266 PP100, well worse than the industry average — a clear below-average signal from both sources, a touch better than the 2021–2022 Palladium launch years.

Tesla sits below the industry average on dependability but has been improving: the 2025 J.D. Power VDS (2022 model-year cars) put Tesla at 209 PP100, just behind the 202 industry average and ahead of Mercedes-Benz and Acura. The Model 3/Y carry the brand. CR, meanwhile, still ranks Tesla among the less reliable used-car brands. Lower mid-pack.

Six NHTSA campaigns cover the 2024 Model S. Three are airbag-related hardware faults: a driver airbag that could tear on deployment, plus two cases of the wrong airbag/horn pad fitted to the steering wheel. The others are a hood latch, a seat-belt warning chime and a rearview-camera circuit board. Each affects few cars and none points at the drivetrain, but that much airbag hardware is above-typical for one model year.

This is the category's strong point. The Model S has the longest high-mileage record of any EV in the US, with no conventional transmission and pack degradation commonly around 10–15% past 200k miles. The 2024 car uses the 2021-refresh dual-motor/Plaid drive units with no systemic drivetrain recall. It is held below the top band because CR owners still flag the drive system, and because of the early-generation drive-unit replacement history.

The Palladium cabin is attractive and well equipped: 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 minimalist screen-first layout, sparse switchgear and limited material variety trail the A8, i7 and S-Class.

Assembly on the mature Fremont line is better than in the 2021 refresh-launch year, but Tesla's initial quality is still far below the industry: 266 PP100 against 195 in the 2024 IQS. Owners keep reporting paint flaws, trim misalignment and rattles at delivery, which costs more at this price than on a mainstream car.

Coverage is adequate. Mobile service and app scheduling handle many jobs without a shop visit. Against that, Tesla's company-owned service centers are far fewer than any franchised luxury network outside major metros, and long appointment and body-shop waits are well documented.

Low production volume means thin parts stocking and a small aftermarket, and collision parts go through Tesla-controlled distribution that has had documented backorders. The S also carries costly hardware: air suspension, a large NCA pack, and aluminum structure that makes repairs expensive. Minimal routine maintenance only partly offsets this.

Very large tilting center screen standard on all 2024 trims.

The AMD Ryzen-powered interface is fast and clean, but nearly everything — gear selection, mirrors, vents, wipers — routes through the screen or touch buttons on the stalkless wheel.

Tesla does not offer Apple CarPlay or Android Auto on any trim.

Excellent native navigation with Supercharger route planning and live stall counts; voice commands are capable for nav/climate/media but not a true conversational assistant at the 2024 model year (Grok arrived by OTA in mid-2025).

A 22-speaker, 960-watt system is standard and well reviewed.

A 12.3-in driver display behind the wheel is standard; configurability is limited compared with Mercedes/BMW clusters.

Industry-leading whole-vehicle OTA updates that regularly add features.

Polished free app with phone key, climate pre-conditioning, charging control, Sentry Mode viewing and summon.

Wireless pads front and rear and USB-C ports through the cabin; no 120V household outlet.

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

2024 cars use vision-only Park Assist after ultrasonic sensors were removed; no front bumper camera (added in 2025), and Autopark/Summon availability was limited during the transition.

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

The big liftback swallows strollers easily, 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 camera, but the 2024 car lacks NHTSA frontal/side ratings and an IIHS rating, and has no rear cross-traffic alert.

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

Smooth one-pedal driving and Autopilot in traffic make it relaxing, but the stalkless controls (and the yoke if chosen) add daily friction.

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

A 197-in long, 78-in wide body, 40-ft turning circle and vision-only parking aids with no front camera make tight parking work.

No US tow rating and a low-slung luxury body; useful only for hauling boxes in the liftback.

A luxury sedan with mixed build-quality reports; not suited to hard use.

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

Around 400 miles of EPA range, Supercharger network access and Autopilot make it an outstanding long-haul car, limited mainly by rear legroom and some road noise.

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

Liftback with 60/40 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 steering and little body roll, though it feels heavy when pushed.

Quick and precise but numb; the optional yoke makes low-speed and parking maneuvers awkward.

Strong, consistent stops with well-calibrated regen, though the base brakes can 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.

Seats and wheel adjust widely and forward view is excellent, but turn signals, wipers and gear selection are on touch buttons/screen 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 effectively fully specified: 17-in center screen, rear touchscreen, 22-speaker audio, adaptive air suspension, dual-motor AWD, heated/ventilated front seats, heated rear seats, HEPA filtration, glass roof and Autopilot are all standard. It misses the top of the band because class rivals add HUD, massage seats and rear-executive packages, and FSD ($12,000, then $8,000 from April 2024) and Premium Connectivity remained extras; the 2025 refresh's adaptive headlights and front camera were not yet fitted.

After the 2023 price cuts, $74,990 bought 670 hp, a ~3.1-second 0–60, 402 miles of EPA range and native Supercharger access — undercutting the Mercedes EQS, BMW i7 and S-Class by $25,000+ while beating them on range and pace, and the $89,990 Plaid's 1,020 hp had no peer near its price. Held short of the very top by a cabin that reads thin against German flagships and modest rear headroom.

Two trims — All-Wheel Drive and Plaid — on one pack and one body, with no rear-drive or standard-range entry, no long wheelbase and no hybrid alternative. Options are paint, wheels, interior colour, yoke vs round wheel and FSD; the $15,000 Plaid step is at least meaningful.

Likely still the best-selling full-size luxury EV sedan in the US against the EQS, i7 and Lucid Air, but a declining nameplate: Tesla reports Model S/X only as a combined 'other models' line that fell in 2024, and needed inventory discounts, 0% APR and free Supercharging at year end to move cars.

Tesla retains strong owner loyalty, the Supercharger halo and Model S/Plaid nameplate cachet, but brand polarisation intensified through 2024 and dented consideration among affluent buyers; against S-Class, 7 Series and EQS badges it is roughly neutral.

Direct sales mean no dealer markup and transparent pricing, and Tesla leaned on factory incentives as the year went on — inventory/demo price adjustments of ~$5,000, 0% APR offers, $1,000 referral discounts, and free Supercharging at year end. Capped because list price is non-negotiable, deals were sporadic rather than constant, and the federal clean-vehicle credit never applied (MSRP far above the $55,000 sedan cap).

2024 is a carry-over year of the 2021 'Palladium' facelift within a generation dating to 2012 — OTA software keeps the interface current, but the 400V architecture, ~250 kW charging and dated exterior trail 800V rivals, a further refresh arrived in June 2025, and production ends with the 2026 model year.

Historically decorated (MotorTrend Car of the Year 2013), and 2024 reviewers praise range, efficiency, Supercharger access, pace and the improved value after price cuts. But it no longer wins comparisons against the Lucid Air or German flagships, and critics cite interior quality for the money, rear headroom, the yoke and stalk-less controls, no CarPlay and below-average reliability.