Tesla introduced the refresh Model S and Model X in the US and Canada last year, and has so far yet to introduce it anywhere outside of North America. That looks like it is going to change soon as there have been developments for the flagship vehicles in Europe and China.
In Europe, reservation holders are being contacted to confirm their deliveries. According to a thread on the popular TFF forum, one reservation holder was told the first batch of Model S Plaid vehicles will arrive in November, meaning the first deliveries will happen in either late November or early December. (via Tesmanian)
Once that shipment of cars have been delivered, the next batch is expected to arrive in the first quarter of 2023.
Some keen-eyed fans were able to spot some of these vehicles on the grounds of Tesla’s Fremont factory waiting to be shipped off. In a drone flyover on October 3 we can see the longer European license plate holders on the front of some of the cars lined up on the test track, an area where Tesla stores many Model S/X vehicles.
Separately in China a Model S Plaid vehicle was recently photographed being taken off the back of a tow truck, ironically directly in front of a XPeng store.
The Model S was then plugged in at a Supercharger, where we can see it was a brand new build, still with the protective wrapping on the window trim. We can also see that it has no ultrasonic sensors, a change which Tesla only announced last week as they take another step towards complete Tesla Vision technology.
The change was only effective for the Model 3/Y however, with Tesla saying it would also be coming soon to the S/X.
BREAKING: The Model S Plaid was photographed for the first time in China, and I wonder if it's an official pre-test before delivery.@WholeMarsBlog @SawyerMerritt pic.twitter.com/LORd6yViho
— Yan Chang (@cyfoxcat) October 10, 2022
The sighting is hopefully good news that the Model S and Model X will soon begin deliveries in China as well. But, it is not the first time one has been spotted in that part of the world that we thought also meant the start of deliveries soon.
Back in March both a Model S and Model X were seen being offloaded at Giga Shanghai. At the time we thought it was a good sign that deliveries were about to begin, but now seven months later and we obviously still have not seen the first customer take delivery of either vehicle.
Refresh Tesla Model S and Model X spotted at Giga Shanghai ahead of official launch
