Tesla's Discontinued Model S Design Patent Approved, Protection Extended to 2041

On November 3 local time, the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted Tesla a design patent titled "Automobile Body," numbered US-D1156251-S. The patent was filed in May 2025, with a 15-year term of protection expiring in 2041. The drawings in the patent document show the front, rear, left and right sides, top, bottom, and multiple three-dimensional views of the vehicle, including design elements such as a fastback roofline, front lip, side skirts, rear spoiler, and rear diffuser. Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen and Julien Bilodeau are listed as the inventors of the patent. In January 2026, Musk announced at Tesla's Q4 2025 earnings call that the Model S and Model X would be discontinued. On March 31, Tesla stopped accepting new orders for the Model S and Model X and launched a special Signature Edition. Since deliveries began in June 2012, cumulative deliveries of the Tesla Model S have exceeded 400,000 units. Tesla executives said that upgrading the platform, which dates back to 2012, to meet safety standards would require hundreds of millions of dollars in investment, and that factory space needed to be freed up for production of the humanoid robot Optimus. Tesla subsequently dismantled the Model S and Model X production lines at its Fremont factory. Optimus has now entered the mass production phase. In 2014, Tesla publicly pledged not to file patent lawsuits against companies or individuals that use its technology in good faith. In July 2026, Musk said he planned to take the same open-source approach with the Model S and Model X as with the first-generation Roadster. As of now, Tesla has not announced a specific open-source timeline for the Model S and Model X-related files.