Teslas offer numerous easter eggs. While most of them are fun to try, Santa Mode is easily one of the most popular and fun easter eggs. You'll find yourself coming back to Santa Mode again and again throughout the years.
What Santa Mode Does
After turning on Santa Mode you'll notice various visualizations have changed.
Santa Mode will turn your car on the screen into Santa and his sleigh. The sleigh will be pulled by two reindeer and you'll even see him carrying presents in the back. If you look closely, you'll see that Santa's sleigh is actually a modified Tesla.
You can pan and zoom the visualization to take a closer look at his sleigh.
You'll notice that the roads have suddenly been covered in snow. If you pay close attention, you'll even see that it has now started to snow.
Other vehicles that are normally rendered on the display will also change. Instead of other vehicle models, all cars will now be transformed into reindeer.
There are subtle details that show that Tesla went the extra mile with this easter egg.
For example, the speed at which your vehicle and the other vehicles are moving will affect how fast the reindeer's legs move. When you slow down, your reindeer will also slow down to a trot.
Your turn signals will also change. Instead of playing the traditional clicking sound that a turn signal makes, the sound has been changed to sleigh bells.
If you look closely at the collars your reindeer are wearing, you'll also see that they light up and flash red when you use your turn signals. If you use your left turn signal, the left reindeer's collar will flash, and if you're using the right turn signal, then the right reindeer's collar will flash. It's subtle but nicely done.
Two Variations
There are three ways to activate Santa Mode. There are also an alternate song that can be played. Two of activation methods are through voice commands while the other requires going into the All Apps menu.
How to Activate Santa Mode
"Run Rudolph Run": The most obvious way to activate Santa Mode is through the Toy Box. Tap on All Apps (the ... at the bottom), choose the Toy Box and scroll to the right to find Santa Mode. This will play the "Run Rudolph Run" song along with the visualizations, but unfortunately, the volume is fairly loud and can not be adjusted. The song will only play once through and will then stop.
"Ho ho ho": You can also activate Santa Mode via a voice command, by simply saying clicking the voice command button and saying "Ho, ho, ho." It's the same outcome as the method above, but easier to turn on.
"Ho ho ho, not funny": There's a second variation of Santa Mode that is also activated via a voice command. If you use the voice command, "Ho ho ho, not funny," then Santa Mode will turn on and the song "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" will be played.
The only difference between the various ways of activating Santa Mode is the song that is played and the sound of the turn signals
Turn Off Santa Mode
To turn off Santa Mode, you can go back to the Toy Box and turn off the slider for Santa Mode. You should also be able to use the voice command "Turn Off Santa Mode," but unfortunately there's a bug that's preventing that from working right now, so you'll need to go through the Toy Box to turn it off.
External Speakers (PWS)
If your car is equipped with a Pedestrian Warning System (PWS), you'll also have the ability to play the Santa Mode music through the outside speaker of your car.
You'll know if your car is equipped with the PWS if it emits a low sound on the outside when traveling a low speeds.
To play ‘Run Rudolph Run' or ‘Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer' through your car's external speaker you'll need to activate the easter egg through the Toy Box and turn on the slider for "Spread Cheer."
Available on All Models
Santa Mode is available on all Tesla models, including the Model S, Model 3, Model X and Model Y. The Santa Mode easter egg remains largely the same regardless of the Tesla model you have. Although it does require a vehicle with the PWS to have the option to play music outside of your vehicle.
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Following the recent departure of longtime deputy Omead Afshar, Elon Musk has stepped up to personally oversee Tesla’s sales operations in North America and Europe, according to a new report from Bloomberg, which cites people familiar with the matter.
This is a big shake-up that places Elon directly in charge of fixing Tesla’s sales slump in two key markets. The move has come as Tesla reported nearly on-the-ball deliveries for Q2 2025, hitting 384k deliveries, against a consensus street estimate of 385k deliveries.
New Leadership Structure
According to the report, Afshar’s former responsibilities are being divided between Elon and Senior VP Tom Zhu. Elon will now directly oversee the sales organizations in the US and Europe. As part of this change, Troy Jones, Tesla’s VP of North America Sales, will now report to Elon.
Tom Zhu, who is based in China, will continue to manage sales in Asia while also taking on the critical new responsibility of overseeing global manufacturing operations. Leadership of Tesla’s factories in Fremont, California, and Texas will now report to Tom. Tesla Energy’s factories will still report to Michael Snyder, VP of Energy and Charging.
For now, we’re unsure whether this is a temporary management structure, if the reporting lines will shift, or if Tesla will either hire or promote a new Senior VP of Sales to cover the duties.
Tackling the Sales Slump
The restructuring is a response to the recent downturn in sales. Analysts estimated that Tesla would deliver approximately 385k vehicles, which they essentially managed to achieve. However, deliveries fell short of production numbers, with Tesla delivering just 373k of the 410k vehicles produced.
This situation is particularly challenging in Central Europe. Europe has been noted as Tesla’s weakest market, according to Elon. Interestingly, Elon previously stated in several interviews over the last few months that there was no demand issue, but it now seems that there have been some issues with growing sales.
With Tesla’s new vehicle registrations across Europe having plunged 37% since the start of this year, and the rollout of the new affordable model, as well as more affordable versions of the Model 3 and Model Y seemingly delayed, there is a lot to do. Some analysts are projecting a second consecutive annual decline in Tesla’s global car sales for 2025.
The Rise of Tom Zhu
A key note in this reshuffle is the return of Tom Zhu to a top global operations role. Tom had previously led the construction and ramp-up of Giga Shanghai and was then promoted to Senior VP of Automotive Operations in 2023. Last year, he was sent back to China to focus on tackling regulatory hurdles with the launch of FSD in China.
His return to overseeing global manufacturing, even while staying in China, is a significant vote of confidence in his abilities. It also comes as Chinese authorities have begun drafting new autonomy guidelines to clear a path for the broader rollout of both Supervised and potentially Unsupervised FSD.
Wrap Up
This major restructuring shows that Elon is once again focused on Tesla and plans to personally tackle the company’s biggest issues. This will require a careful hand, as Elon’s forays into politics have caused self-admitted brand damage. If anyone can turn this around and have the Model Y return as the Best-Selling Vehicle of 2026, having just missed out by a few thousand vehicles to the Toyota RAV4, it is Elon.
Alongside him, Tom Zhu will be responsible for streamlining global manufacturing and ensuring that Tesla is ready to launch their new affordable variants in the near future, which should also make a considerable dent in sales.
Tesla has released its Q2 2025 production and delivery numbers, revealing an improvement in production and deliveries over Q1, but still down from a year ago.
Tesla produced 410,244 vehicles in Q2, nearly equal to their production a year ago, which was 410,831 vehicles. Production for this quarter was significantly up compared to Q1 2025, which only saw 362,615 vehicles produced. While production numbers matched those of a year ago, actual deliveries were down.
Q2 2025 saw Tesla deliver 384,122 vehicles, which was down approximately 59,000 units compared to the same period last year, but up by approximately 48,000 vehicles, or about 14% compared to Q1.
Breakdown by Model
The Model 3/Y segment continues to dominate Tesla’s production profile, accounting for 396,835 units produced and 373,728 delivered in Q2 2025. Deliveries for the “Other Models” category—which includes the Cybertruck, Model S, and Model X—were down compared to the previous quarter, with just 10,394 vehicles delivered, a 20% decline. Compared to a year ago, the drop for these vehicles is even more drastic, with sales being down 52%. Tesla refreshed its Model S and Model X last month with new features; however, the update was much smaller than expected and likely didn’t help much in increasing sales for these vehicles.
Tesla doesn’t break down Cybertruck sales separately, but those deliveries are expected to be down as well.
Tesla noted that 2% of total deliveries this quarter were accounted for under operating lease agreements, consistent with the same quarter last year.
Quarter
Production
Deliveries
Model 3/Y Deliveries
Other Models Deliveries
Lease Share
Q2 2025
410,244
384,122
373,728
10,394
2%
Q1 2025
362,615
336,681
323,800
12,881
4%
Q2 2024
410,831
443,956
422,405
21,551
2%
Context and Market Response
While the numbers exceeded some bearish expectations, the year-over-year delivery drop is Tesla’s second straight quarterly decline. Analysts attribute declining sales to increasing EV competition and reputation issues.
Still, investors found relief in the improved quarter when compared to Q1. The stock rebounded about 4% yesterday on the news.
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