Tag Archives: Tesla

News

Tesla Is Dumping Its Flagship Cars to Build Robots Instead

By any reasonable measure, the Tesla Model S and Model X are among the most important cars of the 21st century. The Model S proved that electric vehicles could be fast, luxurious, and genuinely desirable. The Model X, for all its quirks, helped drag the premium SUV market into the electric age. Now, Tesla is preparing to turn the page on both of them—and not in favor of another car.

Instead, Elon Musk wants robots.

During a call with investors, Tesla’s CEO confirmed that production of the Model S and Model X will be wound down this year and effectively shut off, as the company prepares to convert its Fremont, California factory into a production hub for its Optimus humanoid robots. The move marks the end of Tesla’s longest-running vehicle lines and one of the clearest signs yet that Musk is steering the company away from being primarily a carmaker.

“It’s a little sad,” Musk admitted. But sentimentality has never been a strong force inside Tesla.

The Cars That Built Tesla

When the Model S launched in 2012, the idea of a long-range, high-performance electric luxury sedan bordered on fantasy. Gasoline still ruled, EVs were mostly compliance cars, and most of the auto industry assumed batteries were too expensive and too limiting to matter. Tesla didn’t just prove them wrong—it embarrassed them.

The Model S was quicker, cleaner, and more technologically ambitious than anything else in its class. It became a Silicon Valley status symbol, a drag-strip party trick, and a genuine disruptor all at once. Without it, Tesla would never have become the world’s most valuable automaker.

The Model X followed in 2015, bringing Tesla’s formula to the booming luxury SUV segment. Its falcon-wing doors and complicated hardware didn’t do it any favors in reliability rankings, but the X still found buyers who wanted an electric SUV long before the market was flooded with them.

Together, the S and X were Tesla’s proof of concept.

Now they’re being retired like aging race cars in a museum.

Why Tesla Is Walking Away

The decision comes as Tesla faces pressure on multiple fronts. Vehicle sales have softened over the past year, as competition from China and other global automakers intensifies and as some buyers recoil from Musk’s increasingly political public persona. Tesla even cut prices on the Model S and X in 2023 to stimulate demand—a quiet acknowledgment that their once-cutting-edge appeal had faded.

Meanwhile, Tesla’s latest financial results, while beating earnings expectations, showed total revenue down 3 percent year over year. Investors liked what they heard anyway, pushing the stock up about 2 percent after hours, likely because Musk continues to sell a future that has little to do with cars.

That future is robotaxis and humanoid robots.

Musk says Fremont will be retooled to build Optimus, Tesla’s still-theoretical line of humanoid robots. They don’t exist as consumer products yet, but Tesla is betting that machines that walk, lift, and work will eventually be more valuable than machines that drive.

A Brand at a Crossroads

For Tesla fans—and for car enthusiasts more broadly—this feels like a strange kind of farewell. The Model S, in particular, wasn’t just another luxury sedan. It changed how the world thought about electric cars. It forced Mercedes, BMW, and Porsche to respond. It made EV performance cool.

And now it’s being sacrificed not for another vehicle, but for a pivot into science fiction.

Tesla says it will continue to support existing Model S and Model X owners for as long as people drive them. But make no mistake: these cars are becoming orphans inside a company that no longer sees its future on four wheels.

Whether Musk’s bet on robots will pay off is still unknown. What is certain is that Tesla is walking away from the cars that made it famous, trading asphalt for algorithms and steering wheels for servo motors.

For an automaker that once promised to reinvent the car, that might be the most radical turn of all.

Source: Tesla

NEW CARS

Tesla Model 3 Standard Arrives in the UK with a Lower Price and Fewer Features

Tesla has never been shy about rewriting the rulebook, but its latest move in the UK feels more like a sharp edit than a reinvention. Enter the new Model 3 Standard, a cheaper, pared-back version of the electric saloon that drops the starting price by £2000 to £37,990—and trims a surprising amount of kit along the way.

Think of it as the Model 3 on a diet. The fundamentals remain intact, but Tesla has gone through the cabin and feature list with a red pen. Faux leather upholstery is out, replaced by cloth seats. The once-familiar centre console gives way to an open storage area, lending the interior a more minimalist, almost utilitarian vibe. Minimalism, after all, has always been part of Tesla’s brand—this version just leans harder into it.

The cost-cutting continues with the audio system, which loses its subwoofer along with traditional AM and FM radio. Electric adjustment for the driver’s seat and steering wheel is gone too, replaced by manual controls. Rear-seat passengers no longer get their own touchscreen, and there’s no physical key included—access is handled exclusively through the Tesla mobile app.

What Tesla hasn’t stripped away is Autosteer, its lane-keeping assistance system that can automatically change lanes once the indicator is engaged. For many buyers, that will matter far more than premium trim or extra speakers.

Tesla is staying coy about battery capacity, but the official 332-mile range strongly suggests the Standard uses the same hardware as the Rear-Wheel Drive model. Performance, however, is deliberately dialed back. The sprint to 60 mph stretches to 6.2 seconds, compared with the RWD’s 5.8, while top speed drops from 125 mph to 110 mph.

That slowdown isn’t accidental. Tesla has limited the Standard’s performance specifically to place it in a lower UK insurance group (32), significantly reducing running costs. It’s a pragmatic move—and a rare moment where Tesla openly prioritizes ownership economics over headline-grabbing acceleration figures.

There are other subtle tweaks aimed at long-term value. Standard models come fitted with 18-inch alloy wheels, chosen not for visual drama but for stronger residual values, helping to reduce lease and finance costs. It’s a reminder that this car isn’t chasing enthusiasts—it’s targeting spreadsheets.

Deliveries of the Model 3 Standard in the UK begin next month, timed neatly with the arrival of the £41,990 Model Y Standard. Together, they signal a clear shift in Tesla’s strategy: less luxury, less performance, but a lower barrier to entry.

For buyers who want the Tesla experience without paying for features they’ll barely notice, the Model 3 Standard may be the brand’s most rational car yet. And coming from Tesla, that might be the most surprising thing of all.

Source: Tesla

News

Tesla Loses the EV Sales Crown—And the Margin for Error Is Shrinking

For the first time in years, Tesla isn’t sitting on top of the electric-vehicle world. The company that once made EV dominance look inevitable has officially ceded its global sales crown, as a mix of customer backlash, policy headwinds, and increasingly competent rivals took their toll.

Tesla says it delivered 1.64 million vehicles in 2025, a 9 percent decline from the year before and the second straight annual drop. That slide was enough to push the brand out of first place, overtaken by China’s BYD, which moved 2.26 million electric vehicles over the same period. The numbers, first reported by the Associated Press, mark a symbolic turning point: Tesla is no longer the default leader in a market it helped create.

The slowdown was especially visible at the end of the year. Fourth-quarter deliveries came in at 418,227 vehicles—well short of the roughly 440,000 analysts had been expecting, according to FactSet. That shortfall underscores how thin the company’s margin for error has become, particularly as price cuts lose their shock value and competition tightens across every major market.

Policy didn’t help. The expiration of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit at the end of September—phased out under President Donald Trump’s administration—likely chilled demand in the U.S., where Tesla has long relied on incentives to keep monthly payments attractive. Pull that lever away, and suddenly a Model Y looks a lot more expensive next to a rapidly improving field of alternatives.

There’s also the Musk factor. Tesla’s polarizing CEO remains one of the brand’s greatest assets and biggest liabilities, with some customers openly rebelling against his politics and public persona. In a market that’s maturing—and one where buyers increasingly have choices—that kind of reputational drag matters more than it once did.

And yet, Wall Street remains oddly optimistic. Despite missed expectations and shrinking sales, Tesla stock finished 2025 up about 11 percent. Investors, it seems, are still buying the future rather than the present. Musk’s long-promised pivot toward robotaxi services and humanoid robots capable of basic household and office tasks continues to fuel hopes that Tesla is less a car company than a technology company waiting to cash in.

That may be true—but for now, the scoreboard is clear. Tesla is no longer the world’s best-selling EV manufacturer. Whether this moment marks a temporary stumble or a more permanent reshuffling of the electric order will depend on how quickly Tesla can turn ambition into reality—and how much patience buyers, and investors, are willing to keep.

Source: Tesla