Elon Musk used Tesla’s quarterly earnings call to announce that the company would stop producing the sedan and Model S.
The Model S, launched in 2012, arguably made Tesla the pioneering electric vehicle company it is today, proving that it was possible to combine cutting-edge technology and impressive performance with stylish design and usable all-electric range.
The huge model followed in 2015. Added to this was the latest battery technology and access to a perfect charging network.
“It’s time for the Model S and
The “autonomy” that the Tesla CEO talks about refers to the humanoid robot Optimus, which will be produced on the line that currently houses the Model S and Model X.
In addition to humanoids, sales of Tesla’s expensive Model S and Model of this category also include the Cybertruck and the Tesla Semi Truck.
Therefore, it was difficult to get an accurate overview of total sales. Electricity has been tracking the decline of once-groundbreaking Tesla vehicles for years, suggesting Model S and X deliveries have fallen more than 30% year-over-year since 2023.
By the end of 2024, fewer than 50,000 units had been sold worldwide, although the site estimates that figure could fall to 30,000 units in 2025.
Tesla also failed to update the Model S and Model
This raised the cost of the Model S in the US to $84,990 (around £62,000 / AU$120,000) and the Model X to $89,990 (around £65,000 / AU$128,000). With so many premium competitors like Rivian and Lucid, as well as traditional automakers and emerging Chinese brands, Tesla customers have been shopping elsewhere.
Is Tesla no longer an electric vehicle company?
Now that most of Tesla’s messaging is focused on autonomous driving, advances in artificial intelligence, and humanoid robots, have we reached a point where Elon Musk has finally completely lost interest in the electric vehicle market?
It certainly seems that way, because their final roll of the dice, the divisive Cybertruck, bombs…hard.
According to a recent report by Insider business informationTesla sold just 20,237 Cybertrucks in the U.S. last year, nearly half as many as Tesla will sell in 2024 and a far cry from the 250,000 per year Musk had predicted when the electric pickup truck rolled off the assembly line in 2023, although Musk claimed at the time that it was “the best vehicle Tesla has ever built.”
In 2019, Musk referred to the Model S and the Model
By this logic, the Cybertruck will likely suffer a similar fate to the Model S and Model
Aside from startups and niche manufacturers like Lucid and Rivian, it’s hard to find another global player whose model range isn’t as broad.
However, investors continue to support Musk’s adoption of advanced humanoid robots and his determination to make fully autonomous driving available to the general public.
This is despite Tesla’s total electric vehicle sales, its core business, falling 9% globally in 2025 compared to the previous year, while sales in Europe fell around 28%, according to the data. CBS News.
A lot now depends on Optimus, which Musk says will go on sale in 2027. But if it’s Tesla’s Roadster, we could be waiting much longer for its arrival.
