Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that the company’s engineering team has switched gears to focus on a next-generation electric car platform. More importantly, that platform will be half the price of the Model 3/Y platform.
This announcement comes at a perfect time, as concern regarding inflation and its impact on the rising cost of EVs has reached a fever pitch. Despite assertions that Tesla was hoping to release a cheaper EV as soon as 2023, Musk has since stated that the company’s focus has shifted to the Optimus robot and ramping up Model Y production. However, during a conference call after the release of Tesla’s Q3 2022 financial earnings, Musk clarified that the issue of EV affordability is, in fact, still top of mind for the company, and will be tackled via a next-generation EV platform.
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“It’s the primary focus of our new vehicle development team, obviously,” he shared. “At this point, we are done with the engineering for Cybertrucks and for Semi. So, it’s obviously what we’re working on, the next-generation vehicle, which will be probably be about half the cost of the 3 and Y platform. It will be smaller, to be clear.”
If Musk’s statements stand true, the aforementioned EV platform could presumably enable EVs sitting at a US$25,000 to US$35,000 price point. Given the costly nature of most EVs – especially Tesla’s – this development would be music to Tesla fan’s ears.
Musk added that this new platform aims to produce more volume than “all of Tesla’s other vehicles combined. “Obviously, we’re going to take everything we learned from S, X, 3, Y, Cybertruck and Semi into that platform,” he explained. “But we are on a 2-for-1 target. We’re trying to get to that 50 per cent [of cost] number again.”
