Tesla plans for ‘more affordable models’ before summer

While it remains one of the most popular EV manufacturers in the world, Tesla’s sales fell by four per cent last year from 1.81 million in 2023 to 1.79m. The Model 3 saloon and Model Y SUV accounted for 95 per cent of those deliveries in 2024, but there could soon be more offerings to bolster sales. 

At January’s 2025 investor update, Tesla hinted at further models being added to the line-up, stating, “Plans for new vehicles, including more affordable models, remain on track for start of production in the first half of 2025.”

We haven’t seen any of these new vehicles testing, but the new cars will have a massive role to play in expanding Tesla’s sales – the company said they’ll enable “more than 60 per cent growth over 2024 production”, and that’s based on Tesla existing production capabilities. A target of producing nearly three million vehicles each year has been proposed by the American company.

There are no technical details on the new Tesla vehicles, despite their supposedly imminent arrival, but the firm did say, “These vehicles will utilize aspects of the next-generation platform, as well as aspects of our current platforms, and will be produced on the same manufacturing lines as our current vehicle line-up.” This could mean we’ll see electric motors and the general underpinnings from Tesla’s newest cars – the Model 3 and Model Y – used for the new cars. 

Where they will sit in the market remains to be seen, but Tesla has previously expressed a desire to introduce a car sitting beneath the Model 3 that would cost from around the £30,000 mark. We expected this to be a compact hatchback called the ‘Model 2’, although plans for such a car took a back seat as Tesla revealed its two-door, two-seat ‘Cybercab’ last year. This is set to start from around $30,000 in the US (around £23,000). 

Tesla’s plans for a ‘more affordable’ model, particularly one significantly undercutting the Model 3 don’t appear to be shared by the firm’s CEO Elon Musk. He spoke at the Q3 earnings call in 2023, declaring the “future is autonomous” and that having a “regular 25k [dollar] model is pointless”. 

During the 2025 update, Tesla told investors that the Robotaxi will “continue to pursue a revolutionary ‘unboxed’ manufacturing strategy” and is scheduled for volume production starting in 2026.

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