SpareRadar Tesla GCC spec check

Tesla VINs: same scheme, different factory, no answer

Tesla is the cleanest demonstration of why a US-built VIN dataset goes blank on a car that is structurally identical to one it decodes perfectly.

Runs the free GCC spec check on your own vehicle. Nothing is stored against your name.
Is a Tesla GCC spec?
The honest answer, before anything else on this page.

GCC specification is decided per vehicle, not per model. Two cars of the same model and the same year, built in the same factory in the same week, can go to different markets. So no page can tell you whether yours is a Gulf car, and this one does not try. What it can do is show you exactly what your own VIN encodes and where that stops.

How Tesla builds a VIN outside America
The scheme, and why a general decoder struggles with it.

The American regulator registers Fremont, Austin and the Cybertruck line, so a US-built Tesla decodes completely. It does not register Giga Shanghai or Giga Berlin. A Shanghai-built Model 3 comes back from the reference with exactly one row: manufacturer not registered for sale or importation in the United States.

The important part is that there is no structural difference whatsoever. Position 10 is still the model year and position 9 is still a valid check digit at Shanghai and Berlin, exactly as at Fremont. What is missing is coverage, not complexity, so the fix is a code table rather than a different algorithm.

A handful of code values appear only on non-US cars, because those configurations are not sold there: the restraint codes for the pedestrian-protection bonnet required in Europe and China, and one of the drive unit letters.

Position by position
What each character carries on this maker's cars.
4
Model line
S, X, 3, Y, C for Cybertruck, R for Roadster, T for Semi.
5
Body type and, in practice, the steering side
Tesla's American filings list only the left-hand-drive letters, because that is all that is sold there. The right-hand-drive counterparts pair off one letter later.
7
Battery chemistry
F is lithium iron phosphate, the signature of the Shanghai-built rear-drive cars that dominate the fleet outside America. E is the nickel chemistry.
9
A real check digit, everywhere
This is the point of Tesla as an example. Shanghai and Berlin cars use exactly the same VIN structure as Fremont cars. Nothing about them is harder to read. The American reference simply does not register those two factories, so it answers a Shanghai Model 3 with a single error row and no data at all.
10
A real model year code
Unchanged from the American scheme.
11
Plant
F is Fremont, A is Austin, N is Reno, C is Shanghai and B is Berlin-Brandenburg.
World manufacturer identifiers
The first three characters, and the entity behind each. Country is where the vehicle was built, which is not where it was sold.
WMIBuilt byCountry of manufacture
5YJTesla, Inc.United States
7G2Tesla, Inc.United States
7SATesla, Inc.United States
LRWTesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.China
XP7Tesla Manufacturing Brandenburg SENetherlands
What this decoder covers, and what it does not
Coverage claims here trail capability. If it is not listed, it does not resolve.

Model S, Model X, Model 3, Model Y, Cybertruck, Semi and Roadster, with steering side, battery chemistry, drive unit and plant, across all five factories including the two the American reference cannot see.

  • A few single-source drive unit codes are deliberately omitted rather than guessed.

Tesla models with their own page

Model 3
6 code rows
Model Y
5 code rows
Model S
3 code rows
Model X
3 code rows

Check a specific Tesla

The free GCC spec check reads a VIN and gives a verdict with a certainty score and the evidence behind it. The full VIN decoder returns every attribute the decode resolves, with the source of each one.

Common questions

Why does my Chinese-built Tesla not decode anywhere?

Because the WMI LRW, which is Giga Shanghai, is not registered with the American regulator, and almost every free VIN decoder is built on that registry. The VIN itself is perfectly readable. Position 4 is the model line, position 11 is the plant, position 10 is a real model year and position 9 is a real check digit, all exactly as on a Fremont car.