End of an era: Tesla has built its final Model S and Model X vehicles

Tesla once arranged its core vehicle lineup to spell “S3XY.” Now, the company is left with “3Y” — plus the Cybertruck.

Tesla said Saturday that it had produced the final Model S and Model X vehicles at its Fremont, California, factory, ending 14 years of Model S production and 11 years of Model X production.

The retirements aren’t a major surprise. In January, CEO Elon Musk announced during an earnings call that the Model S and Model X would receive an “honorable discharge.”

Still, it closes a chapter that helped turn the company from a Silicon Valley curiosity into America’s defining EV automaker.

Before the Model S arrived in 2012, electric vehicles were largely built to satisfy environmental compliance requirements. They were associated with limited range, awkward styling, sluggish acceleration, and econobox design.

The Model S changed that equation. The sedan paired sports-car-like acceleration with roughly 250 miles of range and software updates that improved the vehicle long after purchase, helping turn EVs into aspirational consumer products.

The car quickly became a Silicon Valley status symbol, with celebrities like Steven Spielberg and Jay Leno captured behind the wheel.

The Model X followed in 2015 as an aggressively engineered family SUV with flashy falcon wing doors that became both a Tesla signature and a manufacturing challenge.

Together, the vehicles established Tesla as a brand that was simultaneously futuristic and unserious. Software updates added whoopee cushions to seats, “Bioweapon Defense Mode” with medical-grade air filtration, and choreographed holiday light shows.

Neither vehicle ultimately became Tesla’s biggest seller after the lower-cost Model 3 and Model Y arrived. But the Model S and Model X helped establish Tesla as America’s dominant EV maker and pushed nearly every major automaker toward electric crossovers of their own.

Their discontinuation also underscores how dramatically Tesla’s ambitions have shifted beyond traditional car sales. The company is increasingly betting its future on AI, autonomy, and humanoid robots rather than conventional vehicle sales.

Tesla plans to convert the California factory into an assembly plant for Optimus, its humanoid robot project. Musk said during Tesla’s April earnings call that the robots could enter production by the end of the year.

The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.