T
he selection and judging
criteria have changed, the
trophies have changed,
and the vehicles most
certainly have changed,
but the spirit behind the Car
of the Year is the same today
as it was in 1949: Identify the
most superlative new vehicle
introduced each year.
We are confident that, were
we to summon all the judges
and staff of the past 70 years,
we would come to a rapid
consensus: No vehicle we’ve
awarded, be it Car of the Year,
Import Car of the Year, SUV
of the Year, or Truck of the
Year, can equal the impact,
performance, and engineering
excellence that is our Ultimate
Car of the Year winner, the 2013
Tesla Model S.
“The mere fact the Tesla
Model S exists at all is a
testament to innovation and
entrepreneurship, the veryqualities that once made
the American automobile
industry the largest, richest,
and most powerful in the
world,” we wrote. “That the
11 judges unanimously voted
the first vehicle designed from
the wheels up by a fledgling
automaker the 2013 MotorTrend
Car of the Year should be cause
for celebration. America can
still make things.”
It can be argued, as we still
are today, that the Tesla Model
S wouldn’t exist without the
Prius. If Toyota hadn’t made
green cool, the nascent Tesla
Motors—founded one year
before the second-generation
Prius was named our 2004 Car
of the Year—might never have
sold an electrified Lotus, much
less create a new car that
would revolutionize an industry.There’s a difference, though,
between setting the stage
and dominating it. The Prius
changed the world in 2004,
but it has struggled to main-
tain its cultural relevance in
successive generations. Other
automakers are scrambling to
match Tesla’s technology, but
Tesla still carries the first-mover
advantage, and it continues to
advance its leadership.
The audacity of Tesla still
impresses. Prior to Elon Musk’s
leap of faith, the road to
creating the first truly indepen-
dent American mass-produc-
tion automaker in the postwar
era had only been littered with
the wreckage of visionaries and
hucksters, from Kaiser to Tucker,
DeLorean to Bricklin.
Only Tesla has survived, and
it has thrived. (Hedge-fundshort-sellers may be excused
their doubts.) Today, we take for
granted the number of startup
electric vehicle companies
coming out of the woodwork.
But before the success of
the Model S, it was virtually
unheard of, defiant powertrain
technology be damned.
Across the decades, auto-
makers and their dealers have
taken risks on cars that were
pure vaporware. But none has
seen hundreds of thousands
of customers beat down their
virtual door to throw money at
a car that didn’t exist yet from a
company that had never turned
a profit or delivered a product
on time—and not just once, but
for three of the four products
it’s made and two more it hasn’t
yet. Tesla perfected what
Tucker pioneered.
Let’s not lose sight of the
car for its legacy, either. With
the Model S, Tesla rethought
many of the basic relationships
between driver and vehicle.
Seven years later, there still
isn’t another car that doesn’t
require a start button or key.
The idea that a car would
recognize your phone as you
approached, unlock, boot up
its computers, and be ready to
operate and drive the momentThe Ultimate
Car of the Year:
2013 Tesla Model S
Elon Musk’s
Model S
kept all the
promises.70TH ANNIVERSARY I UCOTY
44 MOTORTREND.COM SEPTEMBER 2019