Elon Musk Kills Tesla’s Cheap Car Project, Again, Denies It

Will Tesla or received’t Tesla construct an inexpensive automobile to fit underneath the compact Tesla Mannequin 3 electrical sedan? Since 2020, the reply has been just a little unclear. It’s been promised, after which rumored to be canceled, after which revived. Final we heard, in January of this 12 months, the extra inexpensive Tesla was to be inbuilt Austin in late 2025, using a revolutionary new manufacturing course of that doesn’t exist but. It was typical Tesla hyperbole, and even Musk informed listeners to the corporate’s earnings name that his prognostications needs to be taken “with a grain of salt as a result of I’m optimistic.” Now, it appears, any optimism on this smaller Tesla was misplaced.

Reuters reviews that Tesla insiders have confirmed that the smaller Tesla automobile, rumored to be referred to as the Mannequin C or Mannequin Q (and never the Mannequin 2), has been canceled. The report bases this conclusion on three inside sources and inner messages. However there’s a little bit of a twist, too. Musk, the person behind most of Tesla’s stillborn plans, went on X, his social media platform, and instantly claimed the Reuters report wasn’t true:

In fact, Musk hasn’t specified why the Reuters report is not true. Additionally, who is aware of—a budget Tesla has been so on-again, off-again, we suppose you’ll be able to by no means really say “by no means.”

Anyway, the platform the small Tesla would have been constructed off of, which required the complicated tooling that hasn’t been created but, will apparently dwell on … as a robotaxi. Whereas the brand new manufacturing course of appears to have been supposed to decrease manufacturing prices and create a worthwhile quantity automobile, as an alternative the platform will underpin a smaller variety of robotaxi automobiles, in line with the report.

This will increase eyebrows contemplating the scrutiny of, and investigations into, the corporate’s Autopilot and Full Self Driving driver help techniques, which have been linked to high-profile deadly crashes and incidents involving emergency response automobiles. 

The report comes as Tesla’s most up-to-date gross sales report (particularly, the 8.5 % decline in first-quarter gross sales figures) introduced sobering information for buyers, and because the firm slashed costs additional on a few of its fashions piling up in stock. As Automotive Information notes, the bottleneck here’s a lack of client demand for the corporate’s automobiles, not a provider or manufacturing difficulty.