Tesla will create economy model electric cars starting at $25,000
Elon Musk has announced that Tesla’s engineering team has focused on creating a next-generation electric vehicle platform that will be half the price of the Model 3/Y platform.
For years, Tesla has teased the production of cheaper electric cars, but inflation and high demand for the models only led to higher prices.
Last year, the automaker talked about creating a next-generation platform that would make it possible to assemble a $25,000 Tesla electric car. The CEO of the company, Elon Musk, announced that the model could be released as early as 2023. However, he later denied the development claims, focusing on creating the Optimus robot and ramping up Model Y production.
During a conference call that took place after the publication of Tesla’s financial results for the third quarter of 2022, Musk confirmed that the launch of a “budget” electric car is planned, and the company has already switched its engineering capacities to the development of the next-generation EV platform.
“This is the main task of our team developing new cars. At this point, we have finished the development of the Cybertruck and the Semi. So obviously we’re working on a next-generation car that’s probably going to be about half the price of the 3 and Y platform. It’s going to be smaller, to be clear.”
It appears that Tesla has a small car platform in the works that will allow for electric cars priced between $25,000 and $35,000. Musk added that the company is aiming to produce more volume than all other Tesla vehicles combined.
“We’re going to take everything we’ve learned from the S, X, 3, Y, Cybertruck and Semi to this platform and try to get 50% [of the cost] out again.”
Musk believes that Tesla’s next-generation automotive platform will be able to produce electric vehicles for half the cost, with less labor and manufacturing space, than is needed to produce the Model 3 (which currently starts at $47,000).
Such forecasts “with a cheap price” can be treated with skepticism. Especially given the fact that before the inflationary crisis, it was predicted that the Model 3 would also cost less – from $35,000, and the Model S would start at $50,000.
Earlier, Elon Musk said that Tesla will cost more than Apple and Saudi Aramco combined – now the company’s value is 7 times lower ($695.76 billion versus $4.38 trillion).
