Tesla has completed the teardown of the original assembly line for its flagship Model S sedan and Model X SUV at the Fremont factory in just 46 days, repurposing the space for mass production of its Optimus humanoid robot. The company shared footage of the rapid decommissioning under the banner "End of an era: Decommissioning the original Model S & X assembly line in just 46 days," marking one of the most visible signs yet of Tesla's pivot from cars to robotics.
Key Highlights
- Tesla dismantled the Fremont Model S/X assembly line in 46 days, with the final vehicles rolling off in early May 2026 and a farewell delivery ceremony held on May 20, 2026.
- Limited Optimus production at the converted Fremont line is expected to begin in late July or August 2026.
- The line is designed with long-term capacity for up to one million Optimus robots per year.
- CEO Elon Musk has cautioned that early output will be "quite slow," citing roughly 10,000 unique parts and the absence of an established humanoid-robot supply chain.
Details
Custom orders for the legacy Model S and Model X ended in early April 2026, and the last units were built shortly after. Rather than retool the line for another vehicle, Tesla chose to gut it entirely and rebuild it as an Optimus production cell — a decision Musk framed during the company's Q4 2025 earnings call in late January 2026 as an "honorable discharge" for the two long-running models.
The converted Fremont line is engineered for a long-term run rate of one million robots per year. Tesla is targeting the production of its third-generation (Gen 3) Optimus, the version intended for true mass manufacturing. Musk has previously said end-of-2026 output could reach the tens to hundreds of thousands of units, with a future line at Giga Texas eventually pushing capacity into the millions per year.
Impact
The teardown is a concrete signal that Tesla now views humanoid robots, not just electric vehicles, as its core growth story. Repurposing the Fremont floor that once built its halo cars puts robotics at the center of the factory that made Tesla famous. Musk has repeatedly described Optimus as potentially "the most popular product of all time," arguing the robotics business could eventually eclipse the value of Tesla's automotive division.
For the broader industry, Tesla joins an increasingly crowded humanoid race alongside players such as Figure and 1X, but with a manufacturing advantage few can match: existing automotive-scale factories, tooling expertise, and vertically integrated supply chains.
Background
Optimus has been in development since Tesla first teased the concept in 2021, progressing through a series of prototypes with steadily improving dexterity and autonomy. Early Gen 3 units are expected to serve internal factory roles first — moving parts, handling materials, and performing repetitive tasks — before any wider external deployment.
The complexity of building a humanoid at scale is significant. Unlike a car, a bipedal robot with roughly 10,000 unique parts has no mature global supply chain to draw on, meaning Tesla must stand up much of that ecosystem itself.
What's Next
All eyes now turn to the first Optimus units coming off the Fremont line in the coming weeks and to the anticipated Gen 3 reveal. If Tesla can ramp production without the delays that have historically dogged its manufacturing launches, 2026 could mark the transition of humanoid robots from demo-stage curiosity to factory-scale product.
Source: Teslarati