Tesla is killing the Model S and Model X

Tesla is ending production of the Model S sedan and Model X SUV, CEO Elon Musk announced Wednesday on the company’s quarterly earnings call.

The company will produce the final models of all-electric vehicles next quarter, he said, adding that his company will provide support to Model S and Model X owners “as long as people have cars.”

“It’s time to bring the Model S and X programs to an end with an honorable release, because we are truly moving into a future that depends on autonomy,” he said. “So if you want to buy a Model S and X, now is the time to order.”

Both the Model S and Model X are built at the Fremont, California factory. After production, Tesla will build Optimus robots at the same factory, according to Musk. Production of Tesla’s Cybertruck, which is made at the company’s factory outside Austin, will continue.

Tesla he started Model S in 2012, and it is considered as the first car to make electric cars more attractive. The Model X was Tesla’s second major electric car program.

Tesla has always wanted its models to be affordable – the Model 3 sedan and the Model Y SUV – to sell more of their predecessors.

But sales of both models have declined in recent years, despite interior and exterior updates on the way. Tesla has faced increasing competition in the luxury EV space from automakers, as well as startups like Rivian and Lucid Motors.

“It’s a little sad, but … it’s time to end the S and X programs,” Musk said.

Tesla’s first car

The Model S wasn’t Tesla’s first car – that title goes to the original Roadster. But the Model S was the first car that Tesla built from the ground up.

This helped to end most sales of the Roadster, and paved the way for the Model S to become one of the first electric cars to be sold.

Tesla introduced the sedan in 2012 with a starting price of $57,400. It had a battery mounted on the floor which made it more versatile and faster than the few other electric cars available at the time.

Tesla also offered the Model S with multiple battery sizes, allowing customers to charge more EVs.

The car was an instant hit, and Tesla amassed more than 10,000 reservations by the time of the first delivery in June of that year. By 2013, it had become MotorTrend’s car of the yearbeating the best gas cars in the world.

“For starters, the Tesla Model S is the best car you can get in to get gas,” MotorTrend said.

Tesla iterated on the Model S in subsequent years. It changed the battery options – at one point it even offered bigger packs with less software, in order to give customers a “buy now later” mentality.

The Model S was too the first Tesla to get “Ludicrous Mode,” which allowed it to go from 0 to 60 mph in just 2.8 seconds. It was a fun product that also became one of Tesla’s sharpest word-of-mouth marketing efforts.

Tesla continued to improve the Model S, giving it an industry leading list that still beats many other EVs with complete external and internal rejuvenation in 2021. But by then the company’s success rate was high behind the Model 3 and the much cheaper Model Y.

Fabergé SUV

The Model X was not straightforward.

First of all to be laughed at Before the release of the Model S in 2012, the Model X SUV didn’t hit the roads until 2015. When it did, it came with “Falcon Wing” rear doors that folded.

This made it much easier to get in and out of the Model X. But the doors – along with the rest of the SUV – were very difficult to build to scale with any reliable quality over the years. Musk finally to be invited and “Fabergé cars.” It was in favor of the high-end styling and appearance, as well as the Model X style.

The Model X still sold well alongside the S, and was revived in 2021. But production problems plagued the new model as well, and Musk admitted in early 2022 that Tesla made a mistake by halting production of the Model X before it could be redesigned. ready to be made to scale.

It’s a long time coming

In retrospect, the Model S and Model X hiatus has been a long time coming.

Musk himself he said in 2019 that Tesla was still making “niche” cars more “for ideological reasons than anything else.”

“It’s really important to our future,” Musk said at the time.

At the time, Tesla was still selling tens of thousands of Model S and Model X SUVs per quarter. But the company’s first model was just around the corner: the Cybertruck.

Unveiled in 2019, Tesla had big plans for the Cybertruck. The company said it would sell the starter for $40,000, and produce 250,000 a year. Delays caused by the Covid pandemic, as well as the car’s new design, meant that the car arrived on the market much later than expected.

When it hit the road, the Cybertruck blew up — even though Tesla continued to support the crowd, including on Wednesday’s earnings call. The alleged pre-order of 2 million was not fulfilled, as well as the starting price of $ 40,000. Tesla has struggled to sell just a few thousand units per quarter since then.

The failure of the Cybertruck may have given the Model S and Model X cover. Not only did the two EVs help a little Brushing off the car’s bad reputation, Tesla reclassified the three vehicles as “other models” in its quarterly sales report, making it difficult to say how the Cybertruck is doing.

But Tesla is now a company that wants to end autonomy in cars, and in robots, according to Musk. This is what happened in the Model S and Model X.

They may have been “less important” to (Tesla’s) future seven years ago. But they will always be relevant to the early years of the company, and Musk’s construction as a wealthy entrepreneur who now oversees modern society.