Tesla and Hyundai Motor Group, once rivals in the electric vehicle arena, are now clashing in the field of ‘robots.’ While both share the goal of transforming manufacturing sites with humanoid robots and ultimately creating new revenue streams, their approaches are diverging sharply—drawing significant attention. Tesla has positioned robots at the forefront of its future business, whereas Hyundai Motor Group has chosen the path of leveraging robots to enhance its automotive competitiveness.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, recently announced during an earnings conference call that production of the premium lineup—Model S and Model X—will be discontinued at the end of the next quarter. Parts of the Fremont factory in California, USA, where the two models were produced, will be converted into a mass production facility for the humanoid robot ‘Optimus.’
CEO Musk stated, “It is time to give Model S and X an honorable retirement,” adding, “Tesla is transitioning from an automobile company to a physical AI provider focused on autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots.”
The discontinuation of the premium lineup that symbolizes Tesla is interpreted as a partial departure from its identity as an electric vehicle brand. The market is reading this as a signal that Tesla intends to shift its business center of gravity from electric vehicles to robots.
Optimus, which Tesla will deploy on the vacated production lines, is not simply automated equipment but conceptualized as a ‘worker.’ The underlying strategy is to transplant the battery, AI, and SDV capabilities accumulated through electric vehicle sales into robots to achieve price competitiveness. Through this, the goal is to realize a ‘dark factory’—where artificial intelligence operates plants without human workers—and seize the market during the manufacturing paradigm shift.
In contrast, Hyundai Motor Group’s approach is somewhat different. The Group’s robotics strategy unveiled at CES (International Consumer Electronics Show) 2026 held last month emphasized ‘deploying self-developed robots in factories.’
The humanoid ‘Atlas,’ introduced by Boston Dynamics—Hyundai Motor Group’s robotics subsidiary—is similar in appearance to Tesla’s Optimus and targets industrial deployment, but the priority lies in ‘internal utilization’ rather than sales.
Hyundai Motor Group plans to deploy Atlas in stages at Hyundai Motor and Kia’s global new factories to enhance production efficiency. Starting in 2028, Atlas will be utilized for parts sorting operations at HMGMA (Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America) located in Georgia, USA, with plans to expand its application to assembly processes by 2030. If Tesla makes robots ‘to sell,’ Hyundai Motor Group has invested in robots ‘to use.’
For Hyundai Motor Group, robotics serves as both a means to strengthen competitiveness as an automotive company and, in the long term, a new revenue source. It is a ‘two-track’ strategy: enhancing productivity through robots and reducing quality variance to elevate finished vehicle competitiveness, while simultaneously expanding accumulated technology into external sales. Tesla, on the other hand, is redefining its corporate identity altogether by positioning robotics as its next-generation flagship business.
Strategic differences are also distinctly evident in production scale and pricing. Tesla has set a goal of producing 1 million units of Optimus annually, while Hyundai Motor Group’s Atlas targets approximately 30,000 units per year.
In terms of pricing, Atlas is projected at 130,000 to 140,000 (approximately 200 million won or $137,000) per unit, whereas Optimus is expected to be around $20,000 (approximately 30 million won). This clearly illustrates the strategic orientations of both companies: Hyundai Motor, centering on high-performance, high-precision industrial applications, versus Tesla, aiming for mass adoption and widespread distribution.
Industry observers are paying close attention to the possibility that the two companies will emerge as top competitors in robotics, following their rivalry in electric vehicles. Given that accuracy and software maturity impact productivity, technological gaps are expected to determine market share.
Accordingly, projections suggest that Tesla, which has experience preempting the market through price reduction strategies in the electric vehicle sector, may lead in the speed competition. If the ‘low-price, mass distribution’ strategy also proves effective in the robotics field, Hyundai Motor Group could be pushed back in the early market preemption race.
Conversely, there is also analysis suggesting that Hyundai Motor’s strategy of accumulating high-precision data optimized for manufacturing through deployment in its own factories will prove decisive for competitiveness in the mid-to-long term.
