Elon Musk: Next-generation Tesla is getting smaller and cheaper

It’s been three years since Tesla introduced the Model Y, the SUV version of the entry-level number 3. Multi-billionaire Musk had a quartet whose model name – if you want to read it that way – results in the word “SEXY” ( there is no Model E because Ford has claimed the naming rights, the number 3 is reversed – correct, an E).

While Musk recently released quarterly earnings and Tesla stock continues to be under pressure, he hinted at another product offensive: the first examples of the Tesla Trucks name Semi should be delivered to Pepsi later this year. Production will be ramped up from 2023.

The production of the monstrous cyber trucks is expected to start in mid-2023, after a delay of several years. Musk blamed supply chain problems for the delay.

Tesla for half the price of the Model 3?

And the US company reportedly has another model in the pipeline: During its Q3 2022 conference call, Musk said the next electric-car platform will be smaller than the Model 3/Y platform and will only be about half the size. cost. He expects that due to the lower price, demand will be much higher than for previous vehicles.

According to the e-car portal insideevs.de, when asked by a private investor, Musk replied that he could not give an exact date for the market launch yet, but that the project “would be the primary focus of the new vehicle development team.”

The future entry-level model will initially be offered for self-driving and later as an autonomous vehicle. It is rumored that it is being developed in China and it could be called the Model Q. In an interview with Xinhua news agency, Tesla’s Chinese boss Tom Zhu announced a new base model for about $25,000 in early 2021, which should roll off the assembly line in Shanghai.

However, in early 2022, Musk told investors that the plan for a low-cost entry-level model was no longer being pursued. “We’re not currently working on the $25,000 car,” Musk said in February 2022. The topic will come up at some point. But right now you have plenty of other things to do. Now that the development of the Cybertruck and Semi is largely complete, the entry-level Tesla project seems to be back on the agenda.

As early as 2018, Musk said a low-cost entry-level model would be feasible within three years. And in 2020, he announced the market launch within three years.

Of course, the decision whether and when a cheaper Tesla will be made is all about money: A larger Tesla can be sold at a higher margin. Other manufacturers are therefore first electrifying their higher and middle class models. Tesla started in the luxury class (Roadster) and worked its way through the upper class (Model S and X) to the middle class (Model 3 and Y). Whether the entry-level class becomes an issue at Tesla ultimately depends on whether you can sell a small Tesla with a lot of profit. To achieve this, especially battery prices must continue to fall and Tesla needs additional production facilities to be able to produce a small electric car in very large numbers.

A small car will only become really lucrative for Tesla when customers can also sell software packages such as “Full Self-Driving”. In the US, the maximum “autonomous driving” package currently costs $15,000 and prices will continue to rise. This driver assistance option is therefore more popular with customers opting for more expensive models.

Speaking of more expensive: the new one roadster prerequisite. With this, Tesla’s first electric car would finally get a successor.

(t-online/ccn/oli)