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Tesla discontinues glossy Model X seat backs for matte finish

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Love it or hate it, Tesla has discontinued the glossy seat backs found on the Model X as of this month. The hard plastic seat back was, depending on who you asked, the perfect complement to an already flashy vehicle, or the worst decision Tesla could have made for a vehicle intended for families with small children.

The issue at hand with the original black glossy seat back, for many families with kids and those with an active lifestyle, is that it was prone to scratching and virtually impossible to keep fingerprints from gravitating towards it. Yinn from the Tesla Motors Club forum puts it best when describing the differences between the old glossy-back seats versus the newest matte black seat backs.

Matte vs Gloss:
We have the Matte in our S, and the Gloss in our X, so I feel like I can give a good summary and comparison.

– Our matte is scratched up severely and shows the grooves and looks horrendous.
– Our matte feels less fragile and more durable, resulting in us treating them with less care – most likely resulting in the above.
– The matte backs feel less slippery with no noticeable effect on….anything.

– Our gloss has fingerprints and footprints all over it and looks horrendous.
– Our gloss feels more fragile and less durable, resulting in us treating them with the utmost care to prevent scratching – most likely resulting in the lack of scratches.
– The gloss backs feel more slippery with no noticeable effect on…..anything.

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My wife prefers the matte backs and dislikes the gloss backs. This may be due to our S having the glossy dark ash wood trim and it would just be a lot of shiny surfaces.

I’m the reverse, I think the gloss backs add a nice touch to the car and it feels more luxurious. This may also be because our X has the matte obeche wood that soften and warms the car a little bit, so the extra gloss doesn’t seem as hard/cold.

In summary – they don’t matter. It’s a thing you can dive into while waiting for your car, but it won’t really change your experience. I suppose to some this may matter, but to me it’s very much a <shrug>
#firstworldproblems

Yinn couldn’t have described it better. In the end, the seat back material is a personal preference and determined by the Model X owner’s lifestyle as it relates to use of the vehicle. Here’s a side by side comparison of the previous glossy Model X seats and the newest matte black seats. It’s worth noting that owners have reported that matte seat backs appear “cheap looking” from photos but in reality have a finer quality, to the touch.

What’s your preference? Discuss it with the community in our Model X forum.

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Tesla takes first step in sunsetting Model S and X with drastic move

Tesla won’t be taking custom orders of the Model S or Model X in Europe any longer.

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Credit: @supergeek18 | X

Tesla has seemingly taken the first step in sunsetting two of its older vehicles, the Model S and Model X, by ending international orders.

The flagship sedan and SUV from Tesla are the two oldest cars in the company’s lineup. They account for a very small portion of overall sales, and several years ago, CEO Elon Musk admitted that Tesla only continues to build and sell them due to “sentimental reasons.”

Earlier this year, there were calls for Tesla to end the production of the two cars, but Lars Moravy said that the Model S and Model X were due to get some love later in 2025. That happened, but the changes were extremely minor.

Tesla launches new Model S and Model X, and the changes are slim

Some took this as an indication that Tesla has kind of moved on from the Model S and Model X. A handful of people seemed to think Tesla would overhaul the vehicles substantially, but the changes were extremely minor and included only a few real adjustments.

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In Europe, customers are unable to even put a new order in on a Model S or Model X.

We noticed earlier today that Tesla pressing the ‘Order’ button on either of the flagship vehicles takes you to local inventory, and not the Design Studio where you’d configure your custom build:

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Tesla simply does not make enough Model S or Model X units to justify the expensive logistics process of shipping custom orders overseas. It almost seems as if they’re that they will essentially build a bunch of random configurations, send them overseas every few months, and let them sell before replenishing inventory.

Inversely, it could also mean Tesla is truly gearing up to sunset the vehicle altogether. It seems unlikely that the company will fade them out altogether in the next couple of years, but it could absolutely think about ending international orders because volume is so low.

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Energy

Tesla inks multi-billion-dollar deal with LG Energy Solution to avoid tariff pressure

Tesla has reportedly secured a sizable partnership with LGES for LFP cells, and there’s an extra positive out of it.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has reportedly inked a multi-billion-dollar deal with LG Energy Solution in an effort to avoid tariff pressure and domesticate more of its supply chain.

Reuters is reporting that Tesla and LGES, a South Korean battery supplier of the automaker, signed a $4.3 billion deal for energy storage system batteries. The cells are going to be manufactured by LGES at its U.S. factory located in Michigan, the report indicates. The batteries will be the lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, chemistry.

Tesla delivers 384,000 vehicles in Q2 2025, deploys 9.6 GWh in energy storage

It is a move Tesla is making to avoid buying cells and parts from overseas as the Trump White House continues to use tariffs to prioritize domestic manufacturing.

LGES announced earlier today that it had signed a $4.3 billion contract to supply LFP cells over three years to a company, but it did not identify the customer, nor did the company state whether the batteries would be used in automotive or energy storage applications.

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The deal is advantageous for both companies. Tesla is going to alleviate its reliance on battery cells that are built out of the country, so it’s going to be able to take some financial pressure off itself.

For LGES, the company has reported that it has experienced slowed demand for its cells in terms of automotive applications. It planned to offset this demand lag with more projects involving the cells in energy storage projects. This has been helped by the need for these systems at data centers used for AI.

During the Q1 Earnings Call, Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja confirmed that the company’s energy division had been impacted by the need to source cells from China-based suppliers. He went on to say that the company would work on “securing additional supply chain from non-China-based suppliers.”

It seems as if Tesla has managed to secure some of this needed domestic supply chain.

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Lifestyle

Tesla brings perhaps the coolest interior feature to cars in latest update

Tesla adds on to the “fun” aspect of its vehicles.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has brought perhaps the coolest interior feature to its cars in a new update that is rolling out to vehicles now.

The feature will require a newer vehicle that has interior ambient lighting, which is present on the new Model S, Model X, Model 3 “Highland,” and Model Y “Juniper.” The Cybertruck also has ambient lighting strips throughout.

Tesla Model Y’s ambient lighting design changes revealed in leaked video

With the Version 2025.26+ Software Update, Tesla is rolling out a new “Sync Accent Lights w/ Music” feature, which is available on the Tesla Toybox:

To enable the feature, you’ll access the Toybox, choose “Light Sync,” and then choose “Sync Accent Lights w/ Music.”

Although it does not improve the performance of the vehicle, it is yet another example of Tesla making one of the coolest cars out there. This is truly a cool add-on that can be used to impress your friends and family.

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