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- At Tesla’s “Battery Day” presentation on Tuesday, CEO Elon Musk said he expects the company to make a $ 25,000 “fully autonomous” electric car in about three years.
- It did not offer details about the vehicle, such as whether it would be a sedan, crossover, or other body style.
- The price would potentially bring down the lower priced electric vehicles currently on the market, such as the Chevrolet Bolt and Nissan Leaf.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
If the Tesla Model 3, lauded for its $ 35,000 entry price but marred by pricing concerns, wasn’t cheap enough for you, CEO Elon Musk has a new project in the pipeline: a $ 25,000 fully autonomous electric vehicle. It will be feasible for your company to do “within three years.”
Musk announced the car during Tesla’s “Battery Day” presentation on Tuesday, as he stood in front of a presentation slide illustrated by a car wrapped in a white sheet. He offered no details about the vehicle, such as whether it would be a sedan or crossover, or how it would fit into his current “S3XY” naming scheme, before moving on to the Model S Plaid.
“We are confident that, in the long run, we can design and build an attractive $ 25,000 electric vehicle,” Musk said, a statement honked from an audience sitting in rows of parked Teslas.
“This has always been our dream, from the beginning of the company,” he continued. “I even wrote a blog post about it, because our first car was an expensive sports car, then a slightly less expensive sedan, and finally some kind of mass market. [model] such as Model 3 and Model Y “.
Musk added that the car is about three years away and that it would be “completely autonomous.” But it should be noted that Musk’s claims about autonomy and timelines in general have a habit of lagging behind.
In 2015, he said his guess as to when the company would have full autonomy was in “about three years.” The following year, Musk said that a Tesla could be driven autonomously across the United States by the end of 2017. That has yet to happen.
Musk said in early 2019 that he expected Teslas to be able to operate without driver intervention by 2020, but full range has yet to hit the market.
Still, a more affordable Tesla than the Model 3 is in the works, putting the company on track to potentially undermine cars like the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Bolt, and to help the electric carmaker reach more buyers. .
“Making a super desirable but expensive car doesn’t mean they can afford it,” Musk said. “That is why it is absolutely important, fundamental that we make cars that people can afford.”
