Key Takeaways
- Tesla’s inexpensive EV mission “Redwood” could also be shelved as focus shifts to Robotaxi.
- Redwood was alleged to be a compact crossover that may leverage new manufacturing applied sciences, probably serving because the platform for Tesla’s long-rumored Robotaxi mission.
The future at Tesla is lower than clear, as substantial layoffs, remembers, manufacturing delays, and common instability have crept up in current months. After years of hypothesis, and one thing of a tease by CEO Elon Musk at Battery Day in 2020, Tesla had initially confirmed it was engaged on a next-generation and extra inexpensive EV in 2024. Following an early 2024 report from Reuters, Musk spoke in regards to the mission, dubbed Redwood, throughout Tesla’s Q4 2023 earnings call on Jan. 24, 2024.
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“Our present schedule says that we’ll begin manufacturing towards the top of 2025, so someday within the second half,” Musk stated. He then hedged on the timeline, including, “We — I imply, I will not definitely say — say issues with — they need to be taken with a grain of salt since I am typically optimistic. However, you understand, I do not need to blow your minds, however I am typically optimistic relating to time.” Reuters lately published a report claiming Tesla had shelved the Mannequin 2 to concentrate on robotaxi growth, one thing Elon Musk was fast to dispute. Whereas we had been set to seek out out extra in regards to the Robotaxi throughout an August eighth unveiling, the reveal has now been pushed again till a minimum of October of this yr.
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Shareholders and the press received their first actual replace, and one thing of an admission that plans had shifted, in the course of the firm’s most up-to-date earnings name. In discussing Q1 2024 earnings, Musk acknowledged that new, extra inexpensive Tesla fashions would go into manufacturing in “early 2025, if not late this yr.” Although Tesla additionally acknowledged that these new vehicles can be constructed utilizing the corporate’s present manufacturing platform and manufacturing amenities, a far cry from the revolution that was promised because the genesis of the rumored Mannequin 2. So it appears clear that this considerably mythological mission could have been pushed even additional down the street.
Whereas we watch for Redwood to ultimately, presumably, arrive, here is all the pieces we all know in regards to the mission, together with a short take a look at its historical past.
A brief Tesla and Musk historical past lesson
The Grasp Plan
In 2006, Musk laid out his plan for a way Tesla would sooner or later manufacture a mass-market and inexpensive electrical car, aiming to shift customers from fossil fuel-powered automobiles to a brand new electrical normal. He stated the corporate would accomplish this partly by beginning with luxurious EVs just like the Tesla Roadster, after which working its means all the way down to extra inexpensive fashions.
“The technique of Tesla is to enter on the excessive finish of the market, the place clients are ready to pay a premium, after which drive down market as quick as potential to greater unit quantity and decrease costs with every successive mannequin,” Musk wrote at the time.
In 2017, Tesla launched the Mannequin 3, and whereas the corporate missed the mark in promoting the Mannequin 3 as cheaply because it had hoped, it was in actual fact a extra inexpensive electrical sedan aimed on the mass market.
In 2008, Tesla launched the Tesla Roadster, a high-performance sports activities automotive that may function the corporate’s debut car. Following the Roadster, it launched the Mannequin S in 2012. On the time, the Model S pushed the boundaries of what an EV may supply each by way of vary and efficiency. The Tesla Mannequin X arrived in 2015, including an SUV for the primary time to Tesla’s lineup.
In 2017, Tesla launched the Model 3, and whereas the corporate missed the mark in promoting the Mannequin 3 as cheaply because it had hoped, it was in actual fact a extra inexpensive electrical sedan aimed on the mass market. In actuality, the Mannequin 3 competed on the decrease finish of the luxurious phase towards fashions just like the BMW 3 Sequence. In 2020, Tesla launched the Model Y, a compact crossover SUV that in 2023 grew to become the best-selling car in the world. The Tesla Cybertruck, a slight deviation from the corporate’s authentic path, lastly started making its approach to customers in December 2023.
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It appears after a protracted journey that Tesla is getting near reaching Musk’s grasp plan. The objective has all the time been a $25,000 electrical car, accessible to the typical shopper. Except for the objective value, not a lot has been recognized through the years in regards to the next-gen automotive codenamed “Redwood.” Here’s what we do know.
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Venture Redwood, the consumer-friendly EV
Altering ambitions
In response to earlier reporting from Reuters, earlier than they reported the cancellation of the mission, Redwood was slated to be a compact crossover. In the identical earnings name talked about above, Musk had defined that Tesla would leverage new applied sciences in Redwood’s manufacturing course of, with the automaker first planning to supply the car at its Austin, Texas Gigafactory.
“There’s a whole lot of — a whole lot of new know-how, like, an amazing quantity of latest, revolutionary manufacturing know-how right here… I’m assured that when it’s going, will probably be head and shoulders above every other manufacturing know-how that exists anyplace on the earth, it is subsequent stage,” he stated.
As manufacturing ramps up Tesla would add manufacturing strains at different factories similar to its Mexico location. Tesla had reportedly predicted a weekly manufacturing quantity of 10,000 automobiles to start out. One among Tesla’s long-term objectives has been to create a fleet of robotaxis, based mostly on the idea that the corporate will ultimately crack really full self-driving. Whereas it was thought that the $25,000 automotive would ultimately function the platform for that mission, the shape issue and way forward for each tasks is now much less clear.
“I’m assured that when it’s going, will probably be head and shoulders above every other manufacturing know-how that exists anyplace on the earth, it is subsequent stage,” Elon Musk.
The following few years will show to be an exciting time for EV’s as extra producers come on board and the race for a mass-market electrical car actually heats up. Time will inform if Tesla’s Redwood will certainly start manufacturing in 2025, or in any respect. Within the meantime, the corporate faces renewed competitors from corporations like China’s BYD.
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