The Tesla company canceled the plan to create a car worth 25 thousand dollars, which it announced several years ago, writes Reuters. However, there is one caveat: we are talking about a budget electric car driven by a person. Tesla is not giving up on the idea of creating a cheap unmanned model, and it should appear within a few years.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in an investor call in late October that launching an affordable electric car would be "pointless" if the car wasn't fully autonomous. "That would be stupid," he added. According to analysts, Musk realized that he was late: the segment of cheap “green“ cars is already occupied by the Chinese.
In October, Tesla presented the Cybercab - a prototype of a two-seater robot-taxi. For its serial version, a price of up to 30 thousand dollars is promised, so the car should become the cheapest Tesla. Currently, the lowest price for the brand's electric cars is $42,490. For this price, they offer the base model 3.
Cybercab's presentation, however, did not impress investors. They complained that Musk had not provided a clear plan for a near future in which self-driving cars are far from mainstream. The form factor of the car, which almost disappeared from the American market, was also surprising - "two doors" with a pair of seats.
The company's shares fell nine percent after the premiere. According to Musk, serial production of the Cybercab will begin in 2026. And in 2025, the company will introduce fully autonomous versions of the Model 3 and Model Y. But this is not the first time that Musk has promised something and then does not do it.