Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made good on his threats to steer his EV maker away from his core business to focus instead on AI and its humanoid robot, Optimus.
During the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call this week, the mercurial CEO announced that “it’s time to basically bring the Model S and X programs to an end with an honorable discharge” — the clearest sign yet that Tesla is looking to get out of the car business as sales continue to circle the drain.
“We expect to wind down S and X production next quarter and basically stop production,” Musk explained. “That is slightly sad, but it’s time to bring the S and X programs to an end, and it’s part of our overall shift to an autonomous future.”
“If you’re interested in buying a Model S and X, now would be the time to order it,” he added, promising that existing owners would continue to receive support from the company as long as they’re still on the road.
Most provocatively, Musk revealed that the company’s factory in Fremont, California, would be transformed into a production facility for Optimus, an abrupt end to well over a decade of automotive manufacturing at the facility.
Both the Model S and X, a luxury sedan and SUV respectively, currently start at very close to the $100,000 mark, almost three times as much as the Model 3’s starting price, making them a major — and questionable — investment in 2026.
Tesla’s far more affordable Model 3 and Model Y, however, have become the company’s biggest sellers by a huge margin, responsible for a combined 1.6 million deliveries last year, compared to sales of “other models” of just 50,850.
In other words, the Model S and X were already dead in the water.
The news comes amid a broader slate of genuinely disastrous sales figures at the company. Tesla reported its first-ever decline in annual revenue, with sales faltering across three of the past four quarters. It’s the second consecutive year of overall decline, posting a steep 61 percent decrease in profits in Q4 of last year, compared to the same period the year before.
Now that Musk has massively tarnished the brand with his public embrace of far-right ideologies, putting a major dent in its cars’ desirability, and competition in the space is stronger than ever, particularly from China, the richest man in the world is ready to move on to his next shiny obsession.
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