Tesla VIN decoder.

Data updated 27-Apr-2024

The Tesla VIN or vehicle identification number roughly follows international recognised standards ISO 3779 and ISO 4030 for North America but as most things Tesla. it doesn't quite follow the standards completely.

People have tried to match the vehicle attributes to specific characteristics however we find this can be unreliable as certain characters change depending on others attributes, over time and even country to country. Using our database of car details we have decided to report the range and permutations of cars that have a specific combination of characters to allow the user to decide. We have listed the typical or most common meanings after many of the entries but these do not seem to be universally followed. We've heard (thanks to Gabe) that US 2022 M3 SR+ ship with the LFP battery but are using the letter E which has traditionally been used to signify Lithium Ion batteries.

You may see some people quote "PC48" as a shorthand for their VIN. This represents the Year and Factory digits, and the first 2 numbers of the 6 digit sequence number. Generally speaking Tesla build in VIN order so a MY with a PC48 VIN will be built after a PC44 VIN. See our chart of VINs to build dates to find an approximate build dates.

Please select one or more characters to filter the results. The more you characters you define, the more relevant the results will become.

Digit 1-3 is the World manufacturer. Some people think this is the manufactering plant and while it used to be a reasonable indication, it is nolonger true and the 11th digit should be used for that.

Digit 4 is the model, S for Model S, X for Model X etc.

Digit 5 is a vehicle attribute linked to chassis, gross weight and which side the steering wheel is positioned. With Tesla it typically matches the model and LHD/RHD.

Digit 6 is a vehicle attribute linked to safety reflecting a combination of seatbelts and airbags.

Digit 7 is a vehicle attribute linked to battery type (but not battery size) and charger. E being usually Lithium Ion, F being Lithium Iron/LFP etc. Not all cars from 2022 follow the format precisely, especially E and F.

Digit 8 is a vehicle attribute, usually Motor/Drive combination and power rating.

Digit 9 is a checksum digit

Digit 10 is a year digit e.g. L is the letter for the year 2020. Until 2019 this reflect the year the car was built, from the end of 2019 it reflected a model year for which production typically started in late November of the previous year, e.g. a car with the letter L (2020) may have been made as early as November 2019.

Digit 11 is the plant, F for Fremont, P for Palo Alto, C for China, B for Berlin

Digits 12 onwards are the start of a sequence number, sometimes staring with a P (early Performance models), S (signature) or F (Founders). This convention has not been used for some years now. Other starting letters such as A, B, E, M, R and V are all internal VINs for non production cars. If you provide the sequence number, together with the Model letter, the Year letter and the Factory letter, we will provide the approximate build date of the car

The video below shows the VIN decoder in action and how to obtain the results.

Please select vin details for more of the letters of the VIN. We will then search our inventory database and display the mix of models, variants, years and seat numbers that we find.
If you want to look up a specific VIN using the digits, then check out our Factory Vin Checker which will provide a link to the information of the car if we have it, and also to cars with nearby VIN numbers for comparison.

If you have access to the car, then our guide to finding out what options a Tesla has from the car may be a quicker and easier way to determine the version of Autopilot software and hardware, the MCU version, which air suspension version and whether it's a raven car and has one foot braking etc.

Where to find your Tesla VIN

There are a number of ways to find your Tesla VIN, both of which are relatively easy:

Open the Tesla app, and scroll tot he bottom of the screen for the car you are interested in. You will see a line prefixed Vin: which contains the VIN number of the car.
If you do not have access to the app, maybe you are looking at a used car at a dealer, then the VIN can be seen through the windshield of the car low down, near where the wipers sit.
If you have access to the car, then visit the menus and the software tab, you will see the VIN displayed for the car.

How to find your Tesla Build Date

We can generally calculate the build date of your Tesla from knowing the Model, the Year of production, the Factory and the production sequence number. We work find the build dates for cars closest to the given VIN, work out the build rate at the time and extrapolate using this information. In most cases we have VINs that are within a couple of weeks of any provided VIN, the least reliable estimate is when we have VINs more recent than any confirmed VIN in our database and we are extrapolating into the future.

Tesla VIN and Battery Size

You can not tell the battery size from the VIN. The best you can do is tell the battery chemistry and year of production. If you want to find out the battery size, we suggst you use our Tesla Build date tool which will give you the production date and specification of cars built closest to your vin. From this you can see which battery was in use at the time for your model of car.

Tesla Model Specifics VIN Decoder

The vin decoder will seach and tell you the mix of cars and models that have similar vins. You can use wild cards for some of the letters. This helps you work out not just what each of the letters in the VIN means, but also how that relates to all the Teslas that exist.