Posted on 04/08/2024 11:10:05 AM PDT by Red Badger
Reuters reports that Tesla is ditching the affordable new model as the company shifts focus towards its driverless robotaxis.
Tesla has canceled the sub-$30,000 compact SUV it's been working on behind the scenes for the past few years, according to a new report by Reuters. Tesla CEO Elon Musk first mentioned the vehicle at an event in 2020. At the time, Musk suggested the car would carry a $25,000 price point, be capable of fully autonomous driving, and arrive within three years. The "next-generation vehicle," as Musk dubbed it, was set to be smaller and significantly cheaper than the current Model 3 and Model Y, which start at $40,630 and $44,630 respectively.
The new information follows a January report by Reuters that said Tesla had alerted suppliers of plans to begin production for a new car in mid-2025, codenamed "Redwood." Now, Reuters is reporting based on multiple sources that Redwood will be scrapped, in favor of shifting resources towards Tesla's driverless robotaxi project.
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“Elon’s directive is to go all in on robotaxi,” one source told Reuters.
As with many of Musk's claims, the initial timeline for launching the robotaxi has come and gone multiple times. He first announced the project in April 2019, targeting a 2020 launch. That timeline came and went, with Musk bringing the project back into the news cycle in 2022, when he claimed it would be ready by this year. That, of course, is not the case, though Musk has given a new target reveal, posting "Tesla Robotaxi unveil on 8/8" on his social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.
According to Musk's claims, the robotaxi will be void of a steering wheel or pedals and will instead drive itself using Tesla's Full Self-Driving software. That's said to make it a Level 5 autonomous vehicle, but there are currently no vehicles with SAE Level 5 autonomy on American roads.
When the project does eventually launch, Tesla's goal is to make the taxi fare as cheap as possible. Musk claims that Tesla believes a ride in its robotaxi will cost less than a subsidized public bus or subway fare.
I was highly anticipating not purchasing one.
I understand why Elon pulled the plug; it would be tough to make a decent SUV for that. $30,000 just doesn’t buy what it did ten minutes ago.
>> I was highly anticipating not purchasing one.
Me too! Looking forward to it even! LOL
Yes. That’ll put Uber and Lyft out of business................
They NEVER should have actually produced the Cyber truck. Its a big impractical piece of sh*t.
You can’t leave the Cybertruck in the rain it will stain/rust of something you have to keep wiping it ,oh watch out for bird droppings , closing a door could cut your fingers off etc etc
Their current SUV is butt ugly. Thank heaven!
I think Musk put out a tweet saying the story was not true. But not sure if it was a total denial or if he said production would continue as planned.
Tesla still delivers well over 100,000 cars a month, but is off its peak and below estimates. I think they need a less expensive option just to keep top line numbers up, and particularly to compete with Chinese made EVs. Those are not yet available in the US but are sold in other markets. Musk has warned those cars could be damaging to all US automakers if there is no tariff on them.
Maybe he is using this threat as some kind of leverage given the new mandates. The auto makers will have a tough time meeting them as is and imported EVs for under $20k will move most of the market there. Especially with the mandates.
The only thing that previously kept Chinese cars from American markets was the fact that they could not pass the pollution control tests.
With EVs, that obstacle is no longer relevant............
If Musk is truly smart, he’s secretly developing a hydrogen-powered model instead.
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