Despite a changing automotive landscape and a surge in electric vehicle options, Tesla's brand loyalty remains unrivaled, according to a recent report from banking and investing giant Citi. The resilience of Tesla's brand, even amidst concerns over macroeconomic conditions and increasing competition, demonstrates the appeal of the innovative automaker to its customers.
Tesla's Brand Loyalty Unfazed by Changing Market Dynamics
Citi's analysis indicates that Tesla's brand loyalty has remained stable and impressive despite potential headwinds. Brand loyalty, a key performance metric in the automotive industry, gauges a customer's likelihood of repurchasing a vehicle from the same brand. Here, Tesla's numbers truly shine: approximately 67% of Tesla owners return to purchase another vehicle, far surpassing the industry's average luxury brand loyalty rate of 46%.
Notably, this loyalty persists in spite of speculation that CEO Elon Musk's public persona and prolific Twitter use may impact customer sentiment. Contrarily, Citi's report suggests that Tesla's brand loyalty has trended upward in recent years, with the only notable dip in 2021 likely due to supply constraints rather than Musk's public image.
Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y Winning Over Mainstream Car Owners
One factor contributing to Tesla's impressive brand loyalty could be the value proposition offered by its Model 3 and Model Y. The Citi report notes these vehicles appear to be conquering market share from mainstream automakers rather than solely from the luxury sector. Notably, around a third of Model Y drivers previously drove vehicles from traditional manufacturers like Toyota or Honda.
Yet, Tesla's brand loyalty isn't immune to challenges. Citi's analysis highlighted that among all Tesla models, Model S demonstrated the lowest brand loyalty, perhaps a repercussion of the increased competition it faces from rivals like the Lucid Air, Mercedes EQS, and Porsche Taycan.
Tesla's Global Presence and Production Expansion
Despite these obstacles, Tesla's impressive market presence remains evident. As the world's most valuable automaker, with a market cap of approximately $580 billion, Tesla continues to expand its production capacity, aiming to produce over 1.8 million vehicles in 2023, predominantly at its Shanghai and Berlin Gigafactories. Additionally, Tesla's Giga Texas facility is anticipated to boost output in the next 18 months significantly, and the original Fremont plant is undergoing extensive reworking to match the production capabilities of its Gigafactory counterparts.
Tesla's challenge will be maintaining its high brand loyalty rate as more EV offerings flood the market. However, with new Model 3 and Model Y variants on the horizon and the highly anticipated Cybertruck set to disrupt the North American truck market, Tesla seems well-positioned to continue its dominance and customer loyalty.
While uncertainty surrounds the future of the EV market, one thing is clear: Tesla's ability to maintain high brand loyalty amidst changing conditions underscores the strength and appeal of its brand and its vehicles, reaffirming Tesla's place as a trailblazer in the automotive industry.
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Tesla maintains two primary software branches: the main feature branch and the FSD branch. In general, the FSD branch lags behind on new features pushed to the main branch but provides a more recent FSD version.
However, now Tesla is updating the main branch to a much more recent version of FSD.
Current FSD Build & Shadow Mode
Nowadays, the main branch always includes an older but stable build of FSD. It’s been on FSD V12.3.6 since July 2024. So, if you subscribe to FSD in North America, this is the FSD version you’ll receive until you get added to the FSD track.
Even if you don’t subscribe to or have purchased FSD, your vehicle has v12.3.6 on it. That includes vehicles in regions where FSD isn’t available for general use, such as Europe and China. In those cases, FSD runs in Shadow Mode, providing training data to Tesla if you’ve agreed to their data privacy policies. So Tesla is always analyzing what the vehicle would do compared to what the driver does. When there are contradictions, these are the clips and data Tesla will want to analyze.
FSD V12.5.4.2 on Main Branch
For the first time in five months, Tesla has now updated the baseline version of FSD in the main branch. The new version included with 2024.44 updates is FSD v12.5.4.2. This Tesla is updating the baseline FSD version to FSD V12.5.4.2
FSD 12.5 includes many features for a much smoother experience compared to FSD 12.3.6. Many users will appreciate that it gets rid of the steering wheel nag and instead relies on the cabin camera to provide real-time driver monitoring. This version also includes support for sunglasses with driver monitoring. It’ll be a big upgrade for anyone coming from FSD 12.3.6.
It's always a good thing when Tesla updates the baseline FSD version—that means that Tesla is confident that this new baseline is considerably safer and will continue to train the fleet against it.
What Update Am I Getting?
If you’re already on FSD V12.5.4.2, you’ll likely remain on that FSD build unless V13.3 manages to make its way to the public as Tesla originally planned, but that’s unlikely to happen before the Thanksgiving holiday. In all likelihood, you’ll be getting update 2024.44, which will give you some additional Tesla features while keeping you on the same FSD version.
For those who are already on 2024.44 - if you subscribe now, you’ll have V12.5.4.2 enabled on your vehicle.
If you have a Cybertruck, then you’ll receive update 2024.39.5 with FSD V12.5.5.3. They’re on a unique build for the moment, and this will likely be the case until Tesla acquires enough training data from the Cybertruck fleet.
The Cybertruck is having an eventful November. Just last week, we shared the news that Tesla isn’t offering their in-house wrap service for the Cybertruck anymore; the Foundation Series is now available in inventory in select US locations, Crossbars have arrived, and faster charging is around the corner. Now there’s even more to discuss about the stainless steel beast.
Projection Puddle Lights
Like the recently launched puddle lights for the Model 3 and Model Y, Tesla has introduced a set of add-on Projector Puddle Lights for the Cybertruck. These Cybertruck-specific ones go for $75 USD, or $105 CAD and are available in both the Canadian and US Tesla stores.
However, these don’t have the Tesla wordmark - instead, they feature the iconic Cybertruck symbol and, in our opinion, look even nicer. Here’s to hoping Tesla also introduces a set with the graffiti-style Cybertruck wordmark.
Powershare in Canada
While the Foundation Series Cybertruck has been getting delivered in Canada since November 7th, there was no news on Powershare being supported due to regulatory constraints. On the 20th, Foundation Series owners in Canada began to receive emails to get their Powershare installs started through Tesla’s official installer - Qmerit.
More to follow on pricing and the process as we receive our Canadian quote from Qmerit soon.
FSD in Canada
The Cybertruck Program Manager, Siddhant Awasthi, confirmed that with Powershare now becoming available, FSD for the Cybertruck in Canada will also become available soon. Canadian trucks shipped with a factory software build that didn’t include FSD, but did include TACC and stoplight/traffic control.
Early this morning Tesla began rolling out a new version of FSD 12.5.5.3 for the Cybertruck, which is update 2024.39.5. Will this be the version that rolls out in Canada?
Update: Yesterday, Tesla started rolling out FSD on the Cybertruck in Canada for the first time. The update being rolled out is update 2024.39.5, which not only features the latest FSD available on the Cybertruck, version 12.5.5.3, but it also includes all the features update 2024.38, which includes the huge Sentry Mode improvements that reduce power consumption by about 40%.
Following Integrated Flight Test 6 for SpaceX’s Starship, Elon Musk confirmed that uncrewed Starships are likely to begin making their way to Mars in about 2 years. You’re probably going to ask what’s going to be in those Starships - that’s what Brett Winston on X asked as well. Elon confirmed that Cybertrucks and Optimus robots will be among some of the first items landing on Mars.
That’s a ton of awesome news for Cybertruck, and there’s absolutely going to be more around the corner, especially as we await the big Tesla Holiday Update. While you wait, why not take a look at our Holiday Update Wishlists?
![Tesla Cybertruck: Puddle Lights, FSD/Powershare, Mars? [Update: FSD Now Available in Canada]](https://www.notateslaapp.com/img/containers/article_images/cybertruck/ct_puddle_lights.jpg/003e03bf5f8ad3660801db3b8a52d222/ct_puddle_lights.jpg)
![First Look at Tesla’s New 'Blind Spot While Parked' Feature [VIDEO]](https://www.notateslaapp.com/img/containers/article_images/model-3-2024/blind-spot-indicator-monitor.jpg/4cdcb11af7b1c7cf021ba96588fd4f1a/blind-spot-indicator-monitor.jpg)
