Elon Musk recently told investors that Tesla’s development team is prioritizing a new, smaller, mass-market model that is expected to lower the brand’s input price.
Without disclosing a launch date – Elon is Elon, they’ve always been seen as trash – the company says it’s now the focus of their engineering.
Musk commented in a quarterly investor update, responding to a question around cost-cutting for the three-vehicle platform – amid a 50% cost reduction announced between the Model S/X (platform one) and later Model 3/Y. platform (platform two).
“We don’t want to say the exact date, but this is… the main focus of our new vehicle development team, obviously. We did the engineering for the Cybertruck and for the Semi,” replied Mr. Musk.
“The next generation vehicle will likely be half the cost of the 3/Y platform. It will be smaller, to be fair. But I think it will definitely exceed the production capacity of all our other vehicles combined. “
Tesla Inc CFO Zach Kirkhorn “We’re going to put everything we’ve learned from S, X, 3, Y, Cybertruck, and Semi on that platform,” says the company.
“As you were [directed to Elon] told us many times that we’re on a 2 vs 1 goal. So we’re trying to get to that 50% [reduction] once again. “
While Tesla’s final cost could drop by 50%, that doesn’t mean the car itself will retail for 50% less. But you can safely assume that the model whenever it arrives will undercut the Model 3 significantly, for context starting at RRP $65,500 in Australia.
This sentence seems to be different from Musk’s sentence comment previously reported in 2022when he said that developing the reported $25,000 Tesla was not a priority at the time.
Normally, it is assumed that the cheapest and highest volume new Tesla will be produced mostly at Giga Shanghai, where Australia has the Model 3 and Model Y.
The Chinese factory has Tesla’s highest installed capacity (750,000 units per year to the north), and China remains the world’s electric vehicle hub despite growth in Europe and the US.
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