CEO Elon Musk declared that Tesla’s engineering team had shifted its attention to developing a next-generation electric car platform. It is anticipated to cost half as much as the Model 3/Y platform.
This next-generation electric car platform will be a third of the company, as it already had two for the Model S/X and the Model 3/Y.
According to InsideEVs, questions regarding potential advancements for the next generation of vehicles were thrown at Tesla executives during the Q3 2022 earnings call. In response, CEO Musk revealed that the upcoming platform would be half the cost and smaller than the Model 3/Y platform.
“The next-generation vehicle will be about half the cost of the 3/Y platform and it will be smaller. It will, I think, certainly exceed the production of all other vehicles combined,” he said.
Tesla was also asked when it plans to introduce its third platform and how much cost reduction it thought it could make. Although there are currently no fixed launch dates, CEO Musk responded:
“It’s the primary focus of our new vehicle development team, obviously. At this point, we are done with the engineering for Cybertrucks and for Semi. So, it’s obviously what we’re working on, the next-generation vehicle, which will be probably be about half the cost of the 3 and Y platform. It will be smaller, to be clear.”
He continued by discussing prices and output levels. He stated that the Model 3 and Model Y, which accounted for 95% of the company’s total deliveries in Q3 2022, would not be able to compete with the production volumes of the next-generation Tesla vehicle.
According to the CEO, producing two units of the upcoming Tesla vehicle will cost the same as making one Model 3.
“Obviously, we’re going to take everything we learned from S, X, 3, Y, Cybertruck and Semi into that platform,” the Tesla CEO said. “But we are on a 2-for-1 target. We’re trying to get to that 50% [of cost] number again.”
CEO Musk’s remarks have undoubtedly reignited controversies on the alleged $25,000 Tesla EV. However, the said 50% reduction cost does not imply that the car will be priced half as low as the Model 3.
In the US, Model 3 now starts at $48,490. Even so, it should drastically undercut the Model 3 due to the cheaper base, smaller size, and scale efficiencies.
To make things clear, Electrek reported that the company is not focusing on the cheaper Tesla as its attention switched to the Optimus robot and ramped up Model Y manufacturing in 2022.
In the Q3 earnings call, Musk omitted to discuss essential information like battery size, range, charging capacity, and performance. However, the platform is anticipated to be crucial in helping Tesla achieve its long-term objective of doubling sales per year.
