Elon Musk confirmed during the conference on the new quarterly figures that Tesla’s focus is now on the development of a new platform for smaller electric cars. The goal with Tesla’s third platform, following those for the Model S/X and Model 3/Y, is to halve costs.
“The next-generation vehicle will cost about half of the 3/Y platform and will be smaller. I think it will certainly exceed the production of all the other vehicles combined,” Musk said in the call following the release of the financial figures.
Musk had already declared it a major goal in the past to make electric cars cheaper. There have already been countless design sketches of the 25,000-dollar Tesla by fans and the media, and there has also been speculation about possible model names such as Model 2 or Model Q – and about LFP batteries from BYD. At the beginning of the year, however, Musk surprisingly announced that Tesla was not currently working on the entry-level Tesla because it had too much to do. So the current announcement is a kind of retreat to retreat.
The fact that the development team for new vehicles can now put its “main focus” on the new platform, according to Musk, became possible because “we’re done with engineering for Cybertrucks and Semi”. “Obviously, we’re going to take everything we learned from S, X, 3, Y, Cybertruck and Semi into that platform,” the Tesla CEO said. “But we are on a 2-for-1 target. We’re trying to get to that 50% [of cost] number again.”
Instead of getting cheaper, Tesla’s prices have risen recently due to supply chains, inflation and demand. The new platform – however much smaller it will be – is intended to be able to build cars for half the cost with half the labour on half the factory space. At least that is the plan. In the US, the base price for the Model 3 is currently around $48,500, in Germany, it is 52,890 euros before subsidies.
Musk did not give details on key data such as battery size, range, charging power or drive in the call. However, the platform is expected to play an important role in Tesla’s repeatedly stated long-term goal of increasing sales by 50 per cent per year: Musk stated that the vehicles based on the platform should produce more volume than “all of Tesla’s other vehicles combined”.
Musk also generously omitted another figure: The year in which the new platform is to be ready.
SOURCE: Electrive
