After nearly 14 years on the market, Tesla’s remarkable Model S electric vehicle is being discontinued. There will be no direct successor. 

Much will be said and written about the impact the Model S had on the automotive industry, but this will be one of those cases where the truth is more outrageous than all but the strongest hyperbole, because the shark-like liftback sedan has turned out to be more important than the Model T, the Volkswagen Beetle, or both of them put together. It is the only mass-production vehicle in history to completely define its segment, and it is the only EV that has ever mattered.