Cheaper Teslas on the horizon?

Tesla is evidently about to launch “more affordable models” in a bid to broaden its appeal. The American has also reported its first annual sales decline in some time.

The EV maker sold 1.79 million cars last year, down from 1.81m in 2023.

But Musk didn’t want to dwell on that in a recent Tesla announcement. He said that the new models should boost Tesla’s annual output by more than 60 per cent, to around 3.0m cars. At least that’s the aim.

And Tesla reports that the new cars will enter production in the first half of 2025. However, they are unlikely to be something completely new, per se.

For they will use aspects of the current Model 3 and Model Y platforms, along with new architecture developed for the Cybercab. 

They will also be manufactured on the same factory lines as Tesla’s existing cars. This suggests that they are an evolution of existing vehicles, rather than being all-new.

The fact that Tesla hasn’t shown the new cars yet suggests they are variants of existing models. Tesla typically shows off all-new vehicles years before they enter production. 

Whether or not the new variants represents the new Model 2 line-up is unclear.

But it’s unlikely given Musk has said it would not make sense to launch Model 2 with Cybercab coming.

So don’t expect these newcomers to be rivals for the forthcoming European supermini EVs.

It’s more likely that they will be cut-price spin-offs of existing vehicles. And they will compete with like-sized Chinese models competing around the $US30k level.

Meantime, Musk’s recent antics might not go down so well with Tesla buyers who just want to buy a decent electric car. While the leader’s odd behaviour might have been shrugged off as the actions of an eccentric in the past, the public might not be so forgiving in the future.

Moreover, Tesla is currently a two-model line-up in the mass EV market, with nothing much truly new on the horizon. And sales have been falling in an increasingly competitive sector. Whether or not cut-price versions of existing models is enough to turn things around remains to be seen.