Tesla plans to make more affordable electric cars in 2025.
The company reaffirmed its intention to lower the cost of entry for Tesla ownership in a shareholder update.
“Plans for new vehicles, including more affordable models, remain on track for start of production in the first half of 2025,” the report reads.
“We need to make EVs affordable for everyone, including making total cost of ownership per mile competitive with all forms of transportation.”
The Model 3 is currently Tesla’s cheapest electric car. It starts at £39,990 for the most basic rear-wheel-drive model, rising to £59,990 for the “performance all-wheel drive” edition.
More advanced self-driving features also cost extra. You’ll pay an additional £6,800 for the top level of in-car intelligence. A Tesla Model 3 is not cheap.
While Tesla has not officially announced any details of the “affordable” car range yet, it is expected to be a more compact hatchback design.
The best clue on offer at present is the Cybercab, announced in October 2024. This two-seater design is planned for release by 2027, and is expected to cost $30,000 (around £23,000) or less.
It may have been announced earlier, but it seems the normal EV cousin of the Cybercab is likely to land on forecourts before the Cybcercab.
The Cybercab does not have a steering wheel or set of pedals, because it’s an autonomous car but, again, you can expect the more ordinary “budget” Tesla to have both.
Its main competition will include the MG G4 (from £26,995), Nissan Leaf (from £28,495), and the Citroën e-C3 (from £21,990). There’s also the quirky Citroën Ami, at just £7,695. But, with a maximum speed of 28mph, it can’t be legally driven on the motorway, so won’t be that much use to many.
The Tesla shareholder report saw the company’s share value jump by more than 10 per cent following better-than-expected revenue figures.
It has not all been good news for Tesla of late, though. Following the company’s Cybercab launch, Blade Runner 2049 production company Alcon Entertainment sued Tesla, Elon Musk and Warner Bros. Discovery for copyright infringement.
The US lawsuit claims Alcon Entertainment denied the use of an “iconic still image” from the film Blade Runner 2049 for use as part of the Tesla Cybercab launch, and that the “defendants then used an apparently AI-generated faked image to do it all anyway”.
The case was filed on October 21.
