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Cheaper Tesla model coming in a year as Elon Musk pegs first Robotaxi ride for 2025

Early sketches hint at the Robotaxi design (Image source: Tesla)
Early sketches hint at the Robotaxi design (Image source: Tesla)
During Tesla's earnings call, Elon Musk seemingly pulled forward the release of a 'more affordable model,' previously known as the Model 2. The launch has now moved from an alleged Q4 2025 timeframe, to the first half of next year.

Both Tesla's CEO Elon Musk and its chief designer have refuted the claim that the company ceased to develop a cheaper passenger car, tentatively known as the Model 2, in favor of the autonomous Robotaxi.

"Reuters is lying," said Elon Musk, while Franz von Holzhausen was more diplomatic and simply advised to "not always believe what you read" and then to "stay tuned."

Both might have had a point in their own way, as Elon Musk used the quarterly earnings call to tease that Tesla is "on track to deliver a more affordable model in the first half of next year."

This is apparently something different from the Robotaxi, whose announcement Elon has now officially postponed from August 8 to October 10, exactly as rumored. Asked about his first Robotaxi ride expectations, he mentioned that it will be as soon as FSD loses its "Supervised" moniker. "I would be shocked if we cannot do it next year," he added.

Elon keeps calling Tesla's driverless cab a Cybertaxi or Cybercab, so the video teaser with a Cybertruck-ish design may have some merit, after all. He reiterated that he sent Tesla's engineers back to the drawing board to redesign the front of the Robotaxi, so those edgy looks may undergo additional changes.

Needless to say, the first Robotaxi ride hinges on regulatory approval, too, no matter how Tesla calls its autonomous driving system. Later this year, it will have amassed enough safety comparison data and favorable statistics for the miles driven between interventions to show to regulators. Tesla can then start convincing them that FSD is safer than human drivers, and hope for a quick Cybercab service approval process.

As for the "more affordable" vehicle, the original Model 2 production plans have undergone an apparent transformation. For starters, the Mexican Gigafactory where it was to be assembled is on the back burner. Musk said that Tesla is waiting to see whether there will be tariffs on vehicles imported from Mexico, so "the Cybertaxi or Robotaxi will be produced here at our headquarters at Giga Texas."

Asked whether said cheaper Tesla will be a cost-cutting take on an existing model, or a brand-new form factor like the rumored Model 2, Elon only said that he will save that reveal for the announcement. "If you start announcing some great thing, it affects our near-term sales," he argued, so Tesla has to be careful about the Osborne effect of deferred purchases.

At Tesla's previous quarterly call, Elon hinted that the cost optimization work that went into Tesla's next generation Robotaxi/Model 2 vehicle platform, will also be used to lower production costs of existing vehicles like the Model Y.

From the sound of it, however, the "more affordable model" to be announced by July next year won't simply be a cheaper Model Y Juniper refresh, for example, but rather something entirely new, yet not as radical as the autonomous Robotaxi. 

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2024 07 > Cheaper Tesla model coming in a year as Elon Musk pegs first Robotaxi ride for 2025
Daniel Zlatev, 2024-07-24 (Update: 2024-07-24)