USA
Tesla has finished dismantling the Model S and Model X assembly line at its Fremont, California factory, tearing out robots, conveyors, and supporting infrastructure in just 46 days. The line had run since 2012, when the Model S launched as Tesla’s first mass-produced car, making this a 14-year production run.
Model S and Model X output had already wound down earlier in 2026: Tesla stopped taking custom orders at the end of the first quarter and closed out the cars with a limited Signature Edition send-off before the last vehicles left the line. Both models made Tesla a fixture of the premium EV segment, but the company’s volume today comes almost entirely from the Model 3 and Model Y.
The cleared floor space is being converted into a dedicated line for Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robot. Elon Musk has said on earnings calls that Tesla wants the Fremont line scaled to roughly a million Optimus units a year, with full-scale production targeted for late July or August 2026; a second, larger Optimus facility is under construction at Gigafactory Texas. Limited Gen 3 production is already running at Fremont ahead of that ramp.
The switch is a symbolic marker for Tesla as much as an operational one: the factory space that built the cars which established the company’s reputation in electric vehicles now belongs to the robot Musk has repeatedly called one of Tesla’s biggest future bets.
