March 7, 2025 – Tesla Japan’s official account announced today that production of Model S and Model X vehicles for the Japanese market will cease from March 31st. From April 1st onward, only inventory and used cars will be available for sale locally, and new custom orders will no longer be accepted.
Earlier this year, Lars Moravy, Vice President of Vehicle Engineering at Tesla, stated that the company has no plans to remove Model S and Model X from its product line. He assured, “Rest assured, we will have some movements soon. The upgrade a few years ago was much more significant in terms of vehicle architecture and structure than most people realize. Later this year, we will revisit them to ensure they also receive some of the technological upgrades we have invested in for Model 3 and Model Y.” Moravy further confirmed that Model S and Model X will not be discontinued in the “foreseeable future.”
However, Elon Musk has previously expressed frustration over Tesla’s poor performance in the Japanese market. According to earlier reports, Musk bluntly stated during a financial call last year, “In some regions, our market share is very low, such as in Japan. We should at least have a market share comparable to other non-Japanese automakers like Mercedes or BMW, which we clearly don’t have at the moment.” He attributed this to a “lack of awareness,” a viewpoint he heard from his Japanese friends. Musk emphasized that the issue lies not in a “lack of ambition,” despite his previous prediction that Japan would become Tesla’s largest market outside the US.
