In his book entitled “Elon Musk”, Walter Isaacson recounts how Tesla executives managed to convince the tycoon to bank on the success of an affordable $25,000 electric car rather than investing all of the company’s resources in robotaxis.
Despite all their qualities, the discounts granted and other subsidies offered by governments, electric vehicles Tesla remain unaffordable for common consumers. In France, for example, a Model 3 costs €35,990 after deducting ecological bonuses. In this context, we understand that the $25,000 Tesla is eagerly awaited. Few people know that it almost never saw the light of day.
An excerpt from Mr. Musk’s biography published by Axios tells us that he initially wanted to make a fleet of autopilot vehicles which would revolutionize uses. The tycoon believed so strongly in his idea that he declared to his biographer: “the robot taxi is the product that will make Tesla a 10,000 billion dollar company”. Ultimately, his engineers managed to convince him that creating an affordable electric car and building robot taxis based on it would be a better idea.
Tesla to produce $25,000 car in new Texas factory
According to Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla’s design director, going down the path of no steering wheel would have led to too much dependence on FSD, the system by which truly autonomous driving will arrive. An argument that convinced Mr. Musk, since he then asked his teams to work in parallel on two car models based on the same platform. Tesla executives reportedly had a first look at the $25,000 car and robot taxi in February 2023.
Apparently happy with the result, Chief Twit reportedly said: “When one of these cars comes around a street corner, people will think they are seeing a machine from the future.” The two models would indeed share many points in common with the Cybertruck, undoubtedly the most anticipated electric car in the world currently. When will we see them on the roads? No information has yet filtered on this subject. We just know that they will be produced in a new state-of-the-art factory in Austin.