Elon Musk has revealed that his company’s affordable electric car project is still in the works. A few weeks ago, American media reported that the manufacturer had abandoned this idea in favor of developing an autonomous taxi.
The electric car giant presented its quarterly results for the period January-March 2024 in a tense context. Musk recently made the decision to lay off 10% of Tesla’s workforce as its sales fell for the first time in four years.
Thus, the manufacturer’s turnover increased from $23.33 billion to $21.3 billion year-on-year. Its net profit fell by 55%. Yet its shares have soared 13%, after a staggering 40% fall since the start of the year.
Production from 2025
Investors appear to have been reassured by Elon Musk’s announcement of an affordable electric vehicle. “ When it comes to the new product roadmap, there has been a lot of talk about it. We have updated our future vehicle range to accelerate the launch of new models », Detailed the billionaire during a conference call with shareholders.
These vehicles could even enter production as early as 2025, he revealed. If Tesla strives to lower its prices, the Model 3 Propulsion having recently fallen below the 40,000 euro mark, most of the American manufacturer’s cars remain at a high price for many consumers.
For several months, rumors about a possible Model 2 at $25,000 have been rife. However, it is unclear whether the cars mentioned by Musk refer to this product or to more affordable versions of the Model 3 and Model Y. Indeed, the CEO also explained that the vehicles will mix “ aspects » of a next generation platform with the current system that underpins these models. They will be produced on “ the same manufacturing lines » than the current Tesla range.
Soon 3 million vehicles per year?
In an effort to reassure investors, Tesla also mentioned a transportation service that relies on autonomous taxis, a long-standing promise of Elon Musk. The company will present its first robotaxi on August 8.
The company expects its performance in the second quarter, which runs from April to June, to be much better. It even plans to soon increase its production capacities to 3 million vehicles per year. The company has designed 1.8 million in 2023.
Source : The Verge
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