For years, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been promising an affordable electric vehicle, likely priced at $25,000, as a way to broaden the appeal of plug-in vehicles.
He first mentioned it in a 2018 interview with YouTuber Marques Brownlee, saying “a $25,000 car, that’s something we can do.” Then in 2020, at the company’s first Battery Day event, he speculated that Tesla could eventually produce upward of 20 million of these vehicles in a year — or roughly twice the current production of Toyota, GM, or Volkswagen.
Things started to accelerate last year at Tesla’s shareholder event, where the company’s executives spoke about a specialized manufacturing technique that they called the “Unboxed Process.” This breakthrough would allow Tesla to dramatically reduce the cost of manufacturing, enabling it to sell a vehicle at the $25,000 price point.
The next-gen vehicle will likely be a crossover or hatchback and could feature design elements lifted from the Tesla Cybertruck. But moreover, it would be the fulfillment of a promise made years ago to make EVs more affordable to the masses.
Elon Musk makes a lot of promises, some of which he can’t keep. Let’s hope this isn’t one of them.
