Tesla, the most important EV carmaker of all time, announced last night plans to finally kill off the most important EV of all time, the Tesla Model S.
It and the Model X SUV are being put out to pasture after over a decade of production to make room at Tesla’s Fremont, California, factory for production of the company’s Optimus humanoid robot.
If you’re in the market for a Model S or Model X, and for some reason haven’t bought one yet, now’s the time. Because it sounds like they’re not going to get replaced.
Why Are They Dying Now?
On last night’s earnings call, CEO Elon Musk revealed plans to axe the brand’s two largest vehicles so it could focus on other projects. From CNBC:
“It’s time to basically bring the Model S and X programs to an end with an honorable discharge,” Musk said on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call. “If you’re interested in buying a Model S and X, now would be the time to order it.”
The cars, which are both built in Fremont, will make way for an entirely new assembly line for Tesla’s Optimus robots, a product first revealed in 2021 that Tesla believes will eventually make up 80% of the company’s value in the near future.
The Importance Of The Model S Cannot Be Overstated
The Model S was first introduced in 2012 as Tesla’s second model, following the first-generation Roadster. With sleek, handsome looks and an EPA-rated range of 265 miles in P85 form (unheard of for a mass production EV in this segment at the time), it quickly rocketed in popularity among those who wanted to be eco-conscious without the stigma that comes along with being a Prius driver.
Plus, a huge central screen for the infotainment system and a 0-60 time of 4.6 seconds helped it appeal to the tech- and performance-obsessed, too. The Model S was, famously, the first vehicle—EV or otherwise—to get a perfect score on a Consumer Reports road test. Even today, an updated version of that same car still makes headlines for its acceleration numbers.
More importantly, the Model S’s broad appeal, helped drastically by Tesla’s Supercharger network, which launched that same year, brought electric vehicles into the mainstream. For the first time, people could legitimately consider purchasing an electric car and using it as their only vehicle, rather than just as a quirky toy for short weekend jaunts. The entire industry took notice, forcing other manufacturers to kick their electric vehicle programs into high gear just to keep up. The entire EV landscape you see now is a result of the Model S’s success.
Everything Has An End Point
As important as the Model S and its sister car, the Model X, are to the EV industry, they’re also both really old. In fact, they’re by far the oldest electric passenger cars on sale in America, having been for sale for 14 and 13 years now, respectively.
Both cars have undergone substantial updates to their drivetrains and batteries over the years, significantly improving their performance and range. Despite their age, both cars are still competitive in terms of range, delivering up to 410 and 352 miles of range, depending on whether you go for the sedan or SUV.
But big acceleration numbers and solid range can only do so much. The Model S, Model X, and Cybertruck combined make up roughly 3% of the company’s global sales, dwarfed by the newer, cheaper, and far more popular Model 3 and Model Y.
So it was only a matter of time until the cars were killed off, although it wasn’t obvious that at least the Model S might not be replaced. If you want a big, expensive electric Tesla, there’s always the Cybertruck, and given low demand for that product, you probably won’t have to wait to get one delivered.
Top graphic image: Tesla, ULine, Jason Torchinsky
Maybe it’s just me but that top shot image looks kinda like that robot is trying to exceed the design scope of that S one final time.
“Dammit, where’s that tailpipe?!?!”
Thank you, I was waiting for someone else to say it so I didn’t have to be the first.
Whatever, let them bring forth the robot apocalypse.
The sad thing is that my crazy far right brother in law is out on the street guarding a Twin Cities Tesla dealership. He also got is but kicked in MPS back in 2020 counterprotesting and had his pocket pistol taken from him.
Yep this tracks. Can’t wait to see how hard the Teslabot fails. Not like a ton of families can afford a car priced novelty bot right now…
Dude is running out of feet to shoot
Dude could literally shoot his own feet off and the financial news would be, “Musk Unveils Plans for New Footless Future. Tesla stock up 8%.”
40% of the way to no longer being a car company.
Is this the reason he said we don’t need to save for retirement? He’s making a robot that will make work unnecessary? That will process my firewood? That I can make sweet love to?
I bet dub step will come back into style as a soundtrack for romantic evenings with our elon-bots.
Work will be unnecessary, but money will be more necessary. Where you will get it has not been answered.
“If you’re in the market for a Model S or Model X, and for some reason haven’t bought one yet, now’s the time. Because it sounds like they’re not going to get replaced.”
Yes they are. By ROBOTS!
Having just bought a used S, this bums be out a bit. The first EV I really liked was the Roadster but the S was the first I really wanted to buy. I still love the look (obviously since I bought one). The car has had plenty of hardware and aesthetic updates over the run so it’s kept pace pretty well.
It’s also a shame to see another sedan go away – I like big sedans and I can’t lie.
I recently got a used X Plaid (from a Mitsubishi dealer), so I’m having similar feelings. It sits in a middle area of size that was really appealing. 3 rows, substantial cargo area (compared to an XC90 or X7), without looking like a giant brick. And the power… damn.
Very curious what this will do to the used market values of the S & X. And insurance.
S and X are leaders in depreciation so I’m sure you got a good deal. As long as there is service support you should be fine. But Musk gets bored with things and moves on so it’s hard to say how much he’s willing to spend on discontinued products.
I grabbed a stunner deal on a used LR+, so I feel that. It’s pretty surprising that there isn’t anything lined up to replace, it seems like a valid segment, but then again I guess the sales numbers just aren’t there. Granted, I barely see anything but Model Ys on the road, but I wonder as a car brand if they’d still need a non-cybertruck halo vehicle
*Looks at the new Roadster, puts on best James May impression*
“Does that mean it won’t be coming into production then?”
The most shocking part of this announcement is apparently they’re still building Cybertrucks?
Musk would rather see Tesla go bankrupt than admit that the Incel Camino is a flop. His ego will keep them rolling off the floor long after the only people willing to buy it already have one.
The only upside to his bullshit are the fantastic names people come up with for him and his products.
They’re selling them all to SpaceX
The Model S despite it’s age is still the best looking and most appealing (to me) model. Not that I will buy one but if I were the Model S is the only one I’d consider. That theoretical quandary is now nothing.
I was following this company from when Pedo Musk bought himself into AC propulsions. I should have bought stock then.
I am certainly not buying stock now.
I bought TSLA after reading the Ashley Vance biography back in 2015 and they did really, really well. I sold all my shares after the “awkward waving” last year and made plenty of money but not enough to buy one of their cars.
The scam must continue, can’t have actual products in the way of the bullshit vaporware
Yep, it’s a “tech company” after all, not a car company.
The annoying part is that it could be both. The cars could bankroll the tech. All those people in engineering and manufacturing could have good jobs and do good work and have a decent life while improving Tesla’s cars. They could still hold 90% of the EV market if they had kept pushing the innovations. Instead Musk is determined to fuck it all up. And why does he care if thousands of people lose their jobs? He’ll be a trillionaire either way.
Musk openly and actively HATES workers.
He hates that they have opinions and can call out sick.
He hates that they get paid and that in some states they may also get healthcare.
He hates every non-elon human, but he hates his workers the most.
Too bad. The model S is still the best looking… the only good-looking.. Tesla.
Musk still making racist tweets everyday. Richest man in the world, yet he still sees himself as a poor oppressed white man.
I supported this douche for so long until he finally revealed who he really is.
He’s losing it. Everything to keep the narrative.
So it used to be Sexy 😉 Now it’s just Ey!
3Y!
They killed the SX so they could build start building Optimus3Y…
Or like Ye…
Tesla, S3XY no more.
never was to some of us.
I’ve been a Tesla hater for many years at this point, but let the person who did not find the Model S enticing 10 years ago cast the first stone. There was nothing else like it at the time and it still looks great today. Tesla’s designs are generally garbage but they got the Model S very, very right.
So of course they’d kill it to make humanoid slave robots!
I could get behind the performance, styling was not my tastes, but it was new enough and I guess expensive enough, but more to the point hollywood elite backed enough for the New emporers clothes to be interesting to many other influencers I suppose. I just really was not a fan of Musk so I could not overlook most of it to try to accept the positives with all the other negatives. Same way I won’t consider Apple Products, even with that dirtbag Jobs in the ground.
The model S is still gorgeous. Low, wide, great proportions, cohesive design, and the perfect blend of sporty and luxurious.
I would totally drive one in an alternate universe where Musk is not one of the most terrible human beings on the planet. (And where I had the money to buy a lightly used one).
I got to drive a Model S when they first came out. The acceleration was something I never experienced before. Said to the owner: “Looks like the future to me.” I’m no fan of Musk but will always appreciate him making EVs viable while the other auto mfgrs sat around watching…
How is a humanoid robot any more of a slave than a car?
Soon, it’ll be just “Tesla… Y, tho?”
When I first saw the headline last night, I assumed it was the firm eliminating certain trims within the lines. But this fits with Musk’s overall vision – he’s always seen his firms as primarily technological idea companies that happen to make certain products at certain times. Anyone need a long tunnel dug in an odd manner?
Time will tell if it’s a better strategy than building a business around producing specific products. The whole thing does feel very scifi movie though, but utopian or dystopian, it’s hard to see.
I still prefer the external look of the S to the 3, but I was never going to either, so I suppose this is fine from an auto industry standpoint. From a “let’s build robots” standpoint… well, I guess if you’re lifelong dream is to become a Bond villain, you’re 99% there.
Same only the Tesla I like the look of (besides the original roadster but they were just a lotus) and only one I preferred the interior of because it has an actual cluster in front of you not just a giant iPad glued to the dash. (Well the X also has the same cluster but the X outside is just fugly to me)
I’d say the interior was at least “acceptable”. I still did not like being inside one very much. But the outside, the S was pretty. And the X had a certain charm. Until it opened it’s doors, of course.
Unfortunately, any deliberate attempt to become a Bond villain inevitably ends up with an Austin Powers villain.
The S was the only Tesla that looks any good. The rest look (to me) like rejected 2000s Mazda designs and those old Mazdas all still look much better than the 3XY.
I agree with your overall assessment of their designs, but I will add that the Model S only looked good when it had a grill. When they took the grill out, it just looked like an unfinished kit car. Same with the Model 3. It’s like they just forgot to saw that part out.
Cars can look great without a grill, but when they’re styled to have one, and then you just… take it out, it looks like fried hell.
You’re only 99% there when you actually have humanoid robots that work. He’s like … 11% of the way there.
Those humanoid robots are such a silly idea. At least if you pile cash in the middle of the room and light it on fire, you get some heat out of it.
The big difference in the eye of these freaks is that you can’t fuck a flaming pile of cash
Maybe we can convince them to try.
*more than once
Eh, The KLF already did that.
The KLF has been living rent free in my head since the Doctoring the Tardis article a few weeks ago. It’s like a deep itch I can’t quite reach.
I was watching Megan 2.0 last night. Nothing bad can come from this development at Tesla at all.
Don’t worry, they’ll all be equipped with Grok, and as we all know, gen AI has never been unpredictable, and can’t be used for evil.
Great. Robots picturing me naked. That’s not nightmare fuel or anything.
See the trick is just having a body that even the robots don’t want to picture naked, so I’m safe. Though if one wants to, I would be flattered. /s
If I were a smarter person, I’d design a new crossfit/bodybuilding training program that’d sculpt a human body into the equivalent of a flesh CAPTCHA code. That’ll teach the robots to picture ya nekkid.
Leave it to Elmo to make “Stranger in a Strange Land” all about Elmo. Or does he believe he too will end up as sauce in a pan?
He believes that his consciousness will be transferred to a bot, either via “brain in a jar” or hardware sufficient to handle his memories/personality and he’ll be happily living on Mars.
So he’s gonna end up as the Jonny Quest type on Venture Brothers. But in a jar in a cave on Mars. With his personal assistant Flexo.
Hopefully this boost sales for Lucid since their vehicles are newer and the best alternative to Tesla in those segments.
They’ve had a lot of teething pains. Engineering Explained bought one and has a video essay out on all the issues he’s had.
There’s a follow up that is much less bleak/angry…
Good to know! I don’t think I’d personally consider a Lucid (they’re really gaudy/funded by the Saudis) but they’re a decent alternative to giving Elon money.
That TSLA stock hasn’t cratered is just astounding to me. Meanwhile, we’re high on the AI bubble. Ugh.
AI requires a lot of those module chips for memory purposes, I am surprised Elon is looking at humanoid robots VS Drones and Dogs to later sell to the US and other places with weapons attached.
Still get the feeling that the cars are just a short-term thing for Musk enterprises. I’m also amazed that TSLA has held its stratospheric valuation.
Musk is selling Costco hot dogs for 13 bucks at the GigaDiner. Musketeers will do anything to support their leader.
I assume they’re going to be underage anime sex bots that are totally not for Elon or his buddies, why would you ask?
We know his Bots definitely won’t have LIDAR.
We also know that we are never getting a new Roadster.
(Not that I’m interested in buying anything from that man anyway)