Tesla is discontinuing the Model S and Model

Tesla will end production of the Model S sedan and Model

He said the company will manufacture the final versions of the two electric vehicles in the next quarter, adding that his company will provide support to current Model S and X owners “as long as people own the vehicles.”

“It is time to end the Model S and Model “So, if you’re interested in purchasing the S and X models, now is a good time to order.”

The Model S and Model Once production ends, Tesla will build the Optimus robots in the same factory space, according to Musk. Production of the Tesla Cybertruck, which is manufactured at the company’s factory outside Austin, will continue.

Tesla Fired The Model S came out in 2012, and is considered the first car that made electric cars widely attractive. The Model

Tesla had always aimed for its more affordable models — the Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUV — to significantly outsell their predecessors.

But sales of both models have remained flat in recent years, despite interior and exterior updates along the way. Tesla has faced increasing competition in the luxury electric vehicle space from legacy automakers, as well as startups like Rivian and Lucid Motors.

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

Tesla’s first ground-up design

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

This helped it eliminate much of the roadster trade-off, and paved the way for the Model S to become one of the first true mass-market electric cars.

Tesla launched the sedan in 2012 with a base price of $57,400. It had a floor-mounted battery that helped make it roomier and more dynamic to drive than the few other electric cars available at the time.

Tesla also offered the Model S with multiple battery sizes, allowing customers to pay for more EV range.

The car was immediately popular, with Tesla amassing more than 10,000 reservations for it by the time the first deliveries began in June of that year. By 2013, it was trending on MotorTrend Car of the yearOutperforming the best gas cars from around the world.

“At its core, the Tesla Model S is just a very good car that you can plug in to refuel,” MotorTrend wrote.

Tesla iterated on the Model S in the following years. It has changed battery options – at one point even offering larger battery packs with limited range in terms of software, in an attempt to get customers to adopt a sort of “buy now, pay later” attitude.

The Model S was also it The first Tesla For a “funny mode” that made it possible to go from 0 to 60 mph in just 2.8 seconds. It was a flashy feature that also became one of Tesla’s most subtle word-of-mouth marketing tools.

Tesla has continued to improve the Model S, giving it an industry-leading range that still beats most other electric cars Comprehensive external and internal update in 2021. But by that point, the company’s success had skyrocketed on the backs of the much cheaper Model 3 and Model Y.

Fabergé SUV

Model X was not so simple.

Firstly Excited Before the Model S was released in 2012, the Model

This made it easier to get in and out of the Model Musk at the end Named It’s the “Fabergé of cars.” It was a nod to the luxurious designs and features, but also to the fragile nature of the Model

The Model Ready for large-scale manufacturing.

Long time coming

In hindsight, the retirement of the Model S and Model

Musk itself He said In 2019, Tesla was still making these “specialized” vehicles “more for sentimental reasons than anything else.”

“It’s actually of secondary importance to our future,” Musk said at the time.

At that point, Tesla was still selling tens of thousands of Model S and Model But the company’s first truly new model was on the horizon: the Cybertruck.

Unveiled in 2019, Tesla had big plans for the Cybertruck. The company said it would sell a basic version for $40,000, and make 250,000 of them annually. Delays caused by the Covid pandemic, combined with the vehicle’s complex new design, meant the car reached the market much later than expected.

Once it hit the road, the Cybertruck exploded — though Tesla continues to publicly support it, including during Wednesday’s earnings call. The supposed backlog of 2 million orders was not filled, nor was the base price of $40,000. Tesla has struggled to sell just a few thousand of them each quarter since then.

The Cybertruck failure likely gave the Model S and Model The two old electric cars didn’t just help slight In lieu of the truck’s massive popularity, Tesla also classified all three vehicles as “other models” when reporting its quarterly sales numbers, making it difficult to determine how poorly the Cybertruck is performing.

But Tesla has now become a company that aims to solve the issue of autonomy in cars and robots, according to Musk. This appears to be what eventually happened with the S and X models.

It may have been of “secondary importance” to Tesla’s future seven years ago. But they will always be crucial to the company’s early years, and to building Musk into the wealthy businessman who now looms large in modern society.