Elon Musk has officially decided that selling actual cars to human beings is so 2012. Over the weekend, Tesla confirmed on X that the Model S and Model X have finally reached the end of the line. After 14 and 11 years respectively, the vehicles that essentially dragged the entire automotive industry into the electric age are being retired without a direct successor.
The Fremont factory needs to clear some floor space for Tesla’s latest obsession: Optimus, the humanoid robot. Apparently, building luxury sedans is just a distraction when you’re busy trying to birth a mechanical workforce to replace the very people who buy your cars.
The sales data reveals a story of calculated neglect. In 2025, while the Model 3 and Model Y were busy moving a staggering 1.6 million units, the Model S and X were relegated to the “Other Models” scrap heap in the quarterly reports. Alongside that stainless steel origami project, the Cybertruck, these premium models managed a measly 50,850 sales combined.
Considering the Fremont plant has an annual capacity for 100,000 of these high-end EVs, those assembly lines were likely quieter than a dealership on a Monday morning. The final vehicle to roll off the line, a black Model S signed by the weary factory staff, is destined for a museum, marking the end of the first “real” Tesla.
But Tesla wouldn’t be Tesla without a parting gift wrapped in a PR disaster. To “celebrate” the burial of these icons, they launched a Signature Edition limited to 350 hand-picked loyalists. For the bargain price of $159,420, these lucky few were promised a Garnet Red paint job and enough gold interior accents to make a mid-level dictator blush.
However, the prestige quickly soured when Tesla pulled a classic “last-minute flake” move. Just days before the scheduled delivery event on May 12, customers who had already shelled out $160k and booked flights to California received a brief, cold text: “The event is postponed. Sorry for the inconvenience”. No new date, no reimbursement for hotel rooms, just a digital shrug. It seems that at Tesla, the “Premium Experience” now includes being ghosted by the company after you’ve already paid for the wedding.
