According to Elon Musk, the manufacturer is preparing new, more affordable models, the presentation of which does not have to wait long.
THE Reuters news agency aired an exclusive report on the first of April, according to which Tesla quietly scrapped the development of the long-rumored cheaper car, the Model 2 aimed at a price below 25,000 dollars, in order to focus its resources on its robot taxi, which will be unveiled on August 8.
The report also filled investors with concern, as the price competition is becoming fiercer due to Chinese competition, and there would certainly be demand for the affordable model, as the cheapest Model 3 and Model Y still make up the majority of Teslas sold. The topic of the people’s car was therefore also discussed at the latest financial results report, where the founder and CEO Elon Musk provided encouraging news.
THE The Verge to reassure investors interested in a cheaper car strategy, Musk said they have updated their plans to release new models so they could arrive more quickly, and we could see them as late as this year or as early as 2025. The vehicles in question will combine the company’s current and next-generation platforms, and their production will be based on existing capacities, thus not requiring new plants and production lines, which will make the production process more economical.
However, the billionaire did not go into the details, so it is not even excluded that it was not actually aimed at completely new models, but at lower-equipped, well-priced versions of existing Teslas. Regarding the price, one can only guess, but the current entry-level car, the Model 3, starts at HUF 17 million in Hungary, so whatever form the future cheaper offers come in, they have to land somewhere below that.
In any case, Tesla is not in an easy situation: the price of the manufacturer’s shares has been showing a long-term downward trend, which was given another boost by the fact that the company announced a 9% decrease in revenues and fewer vehicles sold in the current earnings report. For the time being, the Musks are trying to overcome the crisis by firing 14,000 employees and making the production process more economical, as well as by a wide-ranging price reduction, while the company is forced to recall thousands of Cybertrucks due to a life-threatening error.
