According to the latest reports, Elon Musk told Tesla employees that the automaker plans to launch the previously announced $25,000 electric car in 2023. The company’s CEO hinted that it may not even be equipped with a steering wheel. On last year’s Tesla Battery Day (Tesla Battery Day), Musk announced that Tesla will produce a $25,000 electric car.
The statement at the time said Tesla will produce a $25,000 electric car, and this car will also be fully automatic. In addition, he also made it clear that the price point of this new car is achieved through Tesla’s new battery and battery manufacturing efforts, which are reported to reduce battery costs by more than 50%.
This $25,000 Tesla electric car is often referred to as the Tesla Model 2. It is likened to a new type of electric car that Tesla has been planning to produce at the super factory in Shanghai, China and export to the world. Hatchback.
Last year, Tesla announced plans to establish a new R&D center in China to manufacture Chinese-style electric vehicles. Last summer, Tesla began accepting the design of its small electric vehicles produced in China and began hiring soon after.
At the same time, the company also released early design drawings of this small electric hatchback. This makes many people think that this is the design direction and form factor of Tesla’s upcoming electric car:
Electrek has recently reported some media reports from China that the Model 2 is about to start production. However, it should be noted that this situation is unlikely to happen. At a company-wide meeting held recently, Musk confirmed a better idea about the planned release time of cheaper new Tesla cars.
A source attending the meeting told Electrek that Tesla CEO stated that Tesla’s goal is to start producing this new $25,000 electric car in 2023. Musk linked the release of the new Model 2 (unofficial name) with Tesla’s deployment of a fully automated driving system. He even asked Tesla employees: Do we want this car to have a steering wheel and pedals?
What he meant by asking seemed to be that Tesla’s new models will not be equipped with a steering wheel. As early as 2019, Tesla released a picture of a car without a steering wheel and pedals, and said at the time that it planned to launch such a car within two years:
At the meeting, the Tesla CEO said that this new electric car, priced at $25,000, will bet on fully autonomous driving. Tesla is currently trying to release its fully automated self-driving test software to its fleet in the United States before the end of this month.
Once this software that still needs driver attention is launched, Tesla will use the data of the fleet to improve it and try to make it several times safer than human drivers, and then obtain regulatory approval and make it a truly fully autonomous driving. System use.
