Tesla boss Elon Musk has confirmed the company is nixing plans to offer that long-promised affordable $25,000 USD EV. Instead, the company will concentrate its efforts on the Cybercab robotaxi it recently unveiled.
The CEO made his comments during a conference call on Wednesday regarding Tesla's third-quarter results. He said it no longer makes sense to launch an affordable base model when the firm plans to launch the self-driving Cybercab. The price of that model has been promised at under $30,000.
At this point we’ll repeat our usual warning about taking Tesla’s pricing promises with a grain of salt.
Insideevs reports that in speaking about the decision, Musk opined that “basically, having a regular $25K model is pointless... it would be silly.” He added that an affordable regular model is completely at odds with the company's vision, because in his view, “the future is autonomous.”
Even so, in its analysis of third-quarter results, the firm repeats that it wants to make electric vehicles affordable for everyone, and that new, more accessible products should be launched in the first half of 2025. We'll have to wait and see.
The Cybercab
Production of the Cybercab should start before 2027. That's a year later than the promised $25,000 model. Citing anonymous sources, Reuters reports that that Tesla will use the platform planned for the affordable model for the Cybercab. According to other sources quoted by Reuters, the decision was taken earlier this year, when Elon Musk gave a clear directive to put all efforts into the robotaxi.
Reuters makes two other notable declarations in its reporting. Firstly, Tesla is said to be planning a much lower volume for robotaxis than for the now-cancelled affordable model. Secondly, one of the internal messages concerning the decision to cancel the $25K EV reportedly referred to the scrapping of the project with engineering staff, and advised that suppliers not be informed of the program's cancellation.
Tesla denies the information published by Reuters.
