Tesla will stop making the Model S and Model X and repurpose factory space

On Wednesday, Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, announced that the company would stop making the Model S and the Model X and use the space in a California factory for robot production, the New York Times reported on Jan. 30, 2026. Introduced in 2012, the Model S was widely viewed as an electric pioneer.

Mike Ramsey, an analyst at Gartner who test-drove the car 13 years ago, said he was struck by a 17-inch touch screen, the car’s surprising spaciousness and its acceleration: “I’d driven performance cars, but I was thrown back into the seat because of all the torque,” he said, adding that the car was “almost silent” and that “I was stunned.” The Model S helped redefine what a luxury car could be and pushed automakers to center software in their vehicles.

Tesla was an early adopter of wireless software updates that could add features overnight, and two years after the S’s introduction it offered Autopilot, a driver-assistance system that could keep the car in its lane, accelerate and brake. The first Model S could go about 200 miles on a single charge, and more expensive versions up to 300 miles, compared with about 80 miles for the then-top-selling Nissan Leaf.

Executives and analysts described the Model S as one of the most important cars in the industry’s 125-year history and compared it to Ford’s Model T for how it changed expectations about cars, manufacturing and cost.

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