Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk gave the impression of undoing plans to build a $25,000 car for the masses earlier this year with comments that such a vehicle is no longer in the works, only to reignite the hypothesis this month that it’s still on the way.
The tech billionaire said the company’s earnings indicated on Oct. 19 that Tesla is actively running on a third vehicle platform that would charge Tesla a portion of the build price as the platform that underpins its existing volume vehicles, the Model 3 sedan and Model Y crossover. Base Model 3 starts at $48,440 with shipping.
“We don’t know the precise dates, but that’s the bulk of our new vehicle progression gear,” Musk said. The new vehicle will eventually surpass the volume of all other Tesla cars combined, he added.
Some analysts and Tesla observers interpret this to mean that the company is reviving the $25,000 style Musk had heavily touted at an event in September 2020. Musk predicted at the time that building the vehicle would take around 3 years.
But his comments in January this year advised that the main vehicle, dubbed the Model 2 by Tesla enthusiasts on social media, take a back seat.
“We’re not running on a $25,000 car lately,” Musk said in response to a query about the fourth-quarter 2021 earnings call. “At some point, we will. But we had enough on our plate right now, too much on our plate, frankly. “
Musk has come and gone over the years to prioritize a reasonable Tesla.
For most of this year, Musk has promoted robotaxis as a better answer to reasonable transportation than having a private car. In April, he said Tesla would build a committed robotaxi style without motive force controls for large-scale production in 2024.
Analysts took Musk’s comments last week as a reference to his robotaxi project. George Gianarikas, CEO of Canaccord Genuity, told Yahoo Finance that the robotaxi platform could herald the adoption of electric cars globally due to their particularly low production costs.
Still, Tesla fans have speculated on social media that a driver-controlled vehicle could make its way to the new platform, especially if Tesla’s self-driving software is in a position to be implemented in a robotaxi by 2024.
“I’m pleased to see Tesla refocus on this new platform for a less expensive vehicle after Elon said they wouldn’t use it,” said Ryan Shaw, a YouTube content author with 203,000 subscribers who focuses on Tesla news and analytics. But personally, I don’t think this vehicle can be what other people think it is. “
Musk provided more main points about the new platform and Tesla dissolved its press office.
Most likely, the platform is intended for robotaxis, Shaw said, than to human-powered Teslas. However, a twist may be that Tesla realizes that it also deserves to use the platform to build and sell a Model 2 with human controls while robotaxi problems are being solved.
“However, I guess Tesla will have to replace that platform a little bit and sell a more affordable vehicle that can also be driven,” Shaw said in a video last week.
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