A Model X is on display at a Tesla showroom on February 13, 2021 in Beijing, China.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Wednesday that the automaker is ending production of its Model S and X vehicles, and will use the factory in Fremont, California, to build Optimus humanoid robots.
“It’s time to basically bring the Model S and X programs to an end with an honorable discharge,” Musk said on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call. “If you’re interested in buying a Model S and X, now would be the time to order it.”
After the original Roadster, the two models are Tesla’s oldest vehicles, and in recent years the company has slashed prices as global competition for electric vehicles has soared. Tesla started selling the Model S sedan in 2012, and the Model X SUV three years later.
On Tesla’s website, the Model S currently starts at about $95,000, while the Model X starts at around $100,000
Tesla’s far more popular models are the 3 and Y, which accounted for 97% of the company’s 1.59 million deliveries last year. The Model 3 now starts at about $37,000, and the Model Y is around $40,000. Tesla debuted more affordable versions of the vehicles late last year.
In its earnings announcement on Wednesday, Tesla reported its first annual revenue decline on record, with sales falling in three of the past four quarters. Musk has been trying to turn attention away from traditional EVs and toward a future of driverless cars and humanoid robots, areas where the company currently has virtually no business.
Tesla is developing Optimus with the aim of someday selling it as a bipedal, intelligent robot capable of everything from factory work to babysitting. The company said in the release that it plans to unveil the third generation of Optimus this quarter, its “first design meant for mass production.”
Musk said on the call that Tesla is replacing its production line for S and X in Fremont “with a 1 million unit per year line of Optimus.”
“Because it is a completely new supply chain,” Musk said, “there’s really nothing from the existing supply chain that exists in Optimus.”
Tesla expects to boost headcount at the Fremont facility, Musk added, “and to significantly increase output.”
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