The Tesla Model S was the first Tesla model to receive a five-star safety rating from NHTSA.
The achievement came from the original Model S, whose low-mounted battery pack helped give the sedan a low center of gravity and reduced rollover risk. Its electric architecture also left a large front crumple zone because the car had no conventional gasoline engine under the hood. NHTSA’s New Car Assessment Program evaluates frontal, side and rollover performance, with five stars representing its highest rating.
The Model S earned five stars in every NHTSA category in 2013, establishing Tesla’s early reputation for combining electric propulsion with strong crash-test performance. Tesla later promoted a calculated injury probability that it described as equivalent to more than five stars, but NHTSA clarified that its official rating scale stops at five stars.
The other answer choices refer to models that arrived later or achieved notable ratings in their own right. Model X followed the Model S and later earned five stars in all assessed categories, while Model 3 and Model Y also received five-star NHTSA ratings. Those later results do not change which Tesla model achieved the milestone first.