Tesla CEO Elon Musk promised back in January that the production of a more affordable car model would start next year.
Electric car manufacturer Tesla has canceled its plan to introduce a long-awaited affordable electric car model, reports news agency Reuters.
Reuters reported on the matter based on three anonymous sources and internal company messages it saw.
The name Model 2 has been used from time to time for the “cheap model” and its price was expected to start at around 25,000 US dollars, or around 23,000 euros. Currently, the starting price of Tesla’s cheapest car, the sedan Model 3, in the United States is around 39,000 dollars, or around 36,000 euros.
Yet CEO of Tesla in January Elon Musk promised in an investor call that the company would start production of a more affordable car model in the second half of 2025, Reuters reports.
Reuters previously reported that Tesla would also plan to launch a self-driving robot taxi based on the same platform as the now-defunct low-cost electric car. According to Reuters, Tesla still plans to continue developing robotaxis.
Tesla did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
Tesla’s a cheaper model has been awaited for a long time, because Musk promised a cheap model on the market already in 2020.
Reuters interprets the decision to abandon the car’s design as a sign that the company has abandoned its long-term goal of bringing affordable electric cars to the masses.
Bringing a more affordable electric car to the market has been considered essential in terms of achieving Tesla’s growth goals. In 2020, Musk announced that Tesla aims to sell 20 million vehicles by 2030, but according to Reuters, it is unclear how this goal can now be achieved.
Tesla’s sales in the first quarter of the current year were disappointing, and some analysts even described it as catastrophic.
The number of cars sold fell by 8.5 percent compared to a year ago, and just under 390,000 electric cars were delivered. The number of cars produced was also lower than market expectations.
Last year, China’s Byd overtook Tesla as the world’s largest electric car manufacturer.