Cheaper Tesla Model 2 to launch summer 2024 with 'large' dedicated manufacturing hub

Tesla will break ground on a new Gigafactory in Mexico this summer, but the buildout will take longer than thought for a rather exciting reason. Initially, it was rumored that Tesla will be aiming to meet or beat its Giga Shanghai factory record and raise the production sections in nine months or so.

Now, however, the governor of Nuevo León where Giga Mexico will be located, is saying that it will take much longer, 12-15 months to complete it on account of a production line that was added to the construction plans.

That same conveyor belt will seemingly be for none other but the sub-US$25,000 Model 2, or whatever Tesla names its compact Model Y clone, says Governor Samuel García Sepúlveda : 

In the beginning, there was talk that [Tesla] wanted to break the nine-month Shanghai record, but with the meetings, we have been having, the model they want to bring out, which is the economic model that is going to be sold massively, is going to require a whole new production line...

Right now, that production line is in the workshop, more like, working on workshops, to have a rendering and start the construction, so now we estimate that it could take between 12, 14, 15 months due to the large space that it will occupy.

Recently leaked Tesla Model 2 production plans detailed a big goal for making 4 million of the cheap electric cars in the initial push, 2 million of which will come from said Giga Mexico line, which somewhat explains the Governor's "large space" comment.

The Tesla Model 2 is expected to look like a shrunken Model Y and have a 53 kWh LFP battery, according to Elon Musk's Master Plan 3. The Model 2 could still offer similar 265-280 miles of EPA range on a charge like its cheaper siblings in the Tesla portfolio, as it would eventually be 30% lighter than the Model 3 sedan.

As for the Tesla Model 2 price and release date, Elon Musk is on record saying that the automaker is aiming to hit "2-for-1" in terms of production costs compared to the Model 3. Thus, the retail tag may be below the US$25,000 mark before any federal subsidies, while some rumors even claim a US$22,000 Model 2 price, a true mass market electric car.

If the Governor's most optimistic 12-month production line buildout prediction holds water, we should see the cheapest Tesla hit the conveyor belts next summer in a surprise Model 2 2024 release that would precede the launch of its direct competition like Volkswagen's ID.2all by a whole year or so.

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