Musk: $ 25,000 Tesla ready ‘in about three years’

Tesla founder Elon Musk has announced a technology that he says will make Tesla batteries cheaper and more powerful.

In a live performance that Musk labeled ‘Battery Day’, he also teased the possibility of a fully autonomous $ 25,000 (£ 19,600) Tesla “in about three years.”

“This has always been our dream of making an affordable electric car,” he said.

But investors were not thrilled by the news, and $ 50 billion was wiped from its market value.

The main announcement was the new larger cylindrical cells from Tesla. The new batteries were claimed to provide five times more power, six times more power and 16% more autonomy.

But the announced technology will likely take years to implement.

Tesla’s approach includes integrating the battery to form part of the vehicle’s structure, thereby reducing the effective weight of the battery.

The speech took place in front of 240 shareholders, each seated in a Tesla Model 3.

A key aspect of the cheaper Teslas is innovations in the way the company designs batteries, radically improving their efficiency.

Professor Stanley Whittingham, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, told the BBC that “tackling every opportunity is high risk, but highly profitable.”

“Many of us have suggested that the same steps are necessary, but Tesla has the investment and the will to make it happen. I’m not sure anyone else is willing to do this,” he said.

Musk also announced that in addition to purchasing batteries from Panasonic and LG Chem, Tesla himself would begin manufacturing them.

Speaking to the BBC, Casper Rawles, head of price assessment at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, said the expansion would be a “challenge.”

“Even with really experienced automakers, we tend to see a very high scrap production rate in the early years.”

He also cautioned that much of the battery’s contents are expensive metals: “You can only lower the cost up to a point.”

Four consecutive quarters of growth have helped Tesla’s stock price skyrocket and it is now the world’s most valuable auto company.

This despite criticism of Elon Musk that some of his technological advances have been exaggerated.

However, the Tesla boss announced that a “beta” version of the full Autpilot software would be available “in a month or so.”

Musk is no stranger to flashy and sometimes bizarre public displays.