Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has changed his tune on the long-anticipated $25000 Tesla electric vehicle targeted at human drivers, saying such a model would be “pointless” unless it was fully autonomous. The comments, during an October earnings call, marked a sharp pivot in Tesla’s strategy toward affordable vehicles.
Background on the $25,000 Model
Earlier this year, there were reports that Tesla had killed plans for a mass-market EV; at the time, the company’s stock took a noticeable hit. Musk at first responded to the April report by tweeting it was “inaccurate.” But in comments recently, it appears the company is no longer planning to build a standard human-driven model for that price.
Instead, Musk emphasized that the future is in self-driving cars:
“Basically, I think having a regular $25K model is pointless. It would be silly.”
Indeed, during the income call, Elon Musk confirmed plans for the $25000 Tesla, a fully autonomous model called “Cybercab,” rather than one with a traditional configuration of controls. The Cybercab, revealed by Musk during an event back on October 10, is a two-door, two-seat vehicle purpose-built for autonomous driving with no steering wheel or pedals. It will enter production starting in 2026 as full self-driving Model 3s and Model Ys launch first in Texas and then in California.
Musk’s comments point to a more significant shift in Tesla’s aspirations. It previously targeted making 20 million vehicles a year by 2030, but that goal was removed from the latest sustainability reports. Tesla is to focus on leveraging existing platforms to work with the company’s scale and to build more affordable models in the price range of mid-$30,000s. It would be interesting to see the Cybercab’s future and how Tesla would position it within the competitive electric vehicle market as it changes everything. Maybe, in place of traditional vehicle production, the shift towards a fully autonomous model renews what Tesla is and how it relates to consumers.