The Tesla Model S And X Are Dying Next Quarter To Make Room For Robots

It's the end of the road for Tesla's long-running electric sedan and SUV.

Photo by: Tesla

By: Tim Levin

Jan 28, at 5:41pm ET

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It's the end of the road for two of Tesla's longest-running electric vehicles. The Model S sedan and Model X SUV will be discontinued next quarter, CEO Elon Musk said on the company's earnings call on Wednesday.

Tesla plans to convert the space at its Fremont, California, factory where the Model S and Model X are built into a facility to produce Optimus humanoid robots instead.

"It's time to basically bring the Model S and X programs to an end with an honorable discharge, because we're really moving into a future that is based on autonomy," he said.

Musk said it was a "sad" moment, but said it's part of the company's transition into an autonomy and robotics firm. The production space where the Model S and X are currently produced will eventually churn out 1 million Optimus robots annually, Musk claimed.

The Model S was Tesla's flagship sedan.

Photo by: Tesla

The Roadster sports car was Tesla's first-ever vehicle, but the Model S was really the electric car that started the modern EV era. The luxury four-door launched in 2012 as Tesla's first mass-produced vehicle after the Roadster, which was more of a limited-run proof of concept. It won numerous accolades and helped put long-range electric cars on the map as desirable, real options.

Tesla followed that up with the Model X, a three-row SUV with flashy gull-wing doors, in 2015.

The Tesla Model X launched in 2015 with gull-wing doors.

Photo by: Tesla

The move to discontinue both vehicles doesn't come as a huge surprise, and not only because of the raft of model cancellations we're seeing across the EV landscape as the U.S. market hits a rough patch.

The pricey Model S and Model X have made up a dwindling portion of Tesla's sales globally in recent years. Since the Cybertruck launched, they were lumped in with it in Tesla's delivery announcements in a category labeled "Other models." They were already dead in a few markets.

The mass-market Model 3 and Model Y are Tesla's bread and butter, responsible for a combined 1.6 million deliveries in 2025. Sales of "other models," by comparison, only totaled 50,850.

Tesla does plan to fill the gap with new vehicles, albeit some that have been promised for years. Tesla on Wednesday reaffirmed that the steering wheel-free Cybercab, Semi truck and Roadster supercar are all still on the way.

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Contact the author: Tim.Levin@InsideEVs.com

Update 6:20 pm ET: This story originally stated that Tesla targeted Optimus production of 500,000 units per year in the former Model S/X facility. That has been corrected to 1 million.