Is Tesla only speeding up its production timeline because it is getting desperate?
Tesla said on Tuesday it would introduce “new models” by early 2025 using its current platforms and production lines as it retreated from more ambitious plans to produce an all-new model that had been expected to cost USD25,000 (roughly RM118,968). It is now speeding up this timeline, but why? Is Tesla getting desperate given it is facing its biggest sales decline since 2012.
This news also sent Tesla shares soaring in after-hours trading, a much-needed boost, after months of decline during which the brand has struggled with fierce competition and falling sales. The gains came despite it releasing first-quarter results that missed Wall Street expectations. If this is indeed a desperate play to bring sales up, then it worked.
Moreover, CEO Elon Musk declined to provide details of the new vehicles but said Tesla would include more-affordable models that would start production by early 2025. That’s just before the target Musk previously set for launching the new low-cost model widely known as the Model 2.
Reuters also exclusively reported on 5 April 2024 that Tesla had scrapped plans for the Model 2, which investors had expected to drive Tesla’s growth into a mass-market automaker. Musk initially reacted to that story with a post on his social platform X saying “Reuters is lying,” without pointing out any inaccuracies.
On top of that, not too long ago, neither Tesla nor Musk directly addressed the Reuters report. Instead, they discussed unidentified new models that appeared to be different products, without saying how many, what type or providing their target prices. The new models would be built on the brand’s current manufacturing lines and use “aspects” of its next-generation platform too.
Tesla also cautioned that this plan may “result in achieving less cost reduction than previously expected,” suggesting that the vehicles may cost consumers more than the Model 2’s approximate RM118,968 price. The automaker said its plan for new models would let it better control capital expenditures during “uncertain times.”
Tesla engineering chief Lars Moravy also said the company would avoid the risk of investing in a “revolutionary” manufacturing process. Musk has said previously the all-new affordable car would be a test bed for manufacturing innovation. Moravy said the brand’s work on the next-generation affordable car is “transferable” to the vehicles it now aims to release next year.
We got all this from Reuters and their full article is linked here. Thank you Reuters for the information and images.
