Tesla has told fans it plans to start production of a new electric car codenamed “Redwood” in mid-2025, said Elon Mask. According to four people with initial descriptions of it, two of them describe the model as a compact crossover. Also, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has long whetted the appetite of suppliers and investors for affordable electric vehicles and self-driving robotaxis.
It is expected to be built on the next-generation Endeavor Electric Vehicle platform. Musk also said in 2022 that Tesla would build a dedicated self-driving taxi in 2024, after several misses on its goal of achieving full self-driving capabilities.
BYD has overtaken Tesla as the world’s top EV maker by the end of 2023. These models, including an entry-level $25,000 car, will allow it to compete with cheaper gasoline-powered cars and a growing number of cheaper EVs, such as those made by China’s BYD.
Musk said in May 2023 that Tesla was working on two new products with the potential for combined sales of 5 million vehicles a year. “Both product design and manufacturing techniques are head and shoulders above anything else in the industry,” Tesla’s owner said at Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting.
Musk first promised to build a $25,000 car in 2020, a plan he later shelved and then revived. Tesla’s cheapest offering, the Model 3 sedan, currently has a starting price of $38,990 in the US. Tesla sent out a “request for quotations” or invitation to bid for the “Redwood” model to suppliers last year and forecast a weekly production volume of 10,000 cars, two of the sources said.
Production will begin in June 2025, three sources said. All spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is confidential. Tesla plans to build an inexpensive robotaxi and an entry-level, $25,000 electric car based on the same car architecture, according to Walter Isaacson’s biography of Musk published in September, which includes interviews with the CEO and executives.
Musk said last year that the affordable model would initially be built at Tesla’s new factory in Texas. The EV maker also has factories in Shanghai and Fremont, California. Tesla plans to build cheaper cars at its factory near Berlin and is interested in building a factory in India to make less expensive electric cars, sources said earlier.
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