Tesla's $25,000 Car May Hit The Market Sooner Than Planned

Tesla may be closer to producing the US$25,000 electric vehicle sooner than the market thought, according to media reports.

At Tesla's Battery Day in September 2020, Elon Musk said that the EV maker would produce a US$25,000 vehicle, probably in three years.

"Tesla will make a compelling $25,000 electric vehicle that is also fully autonomous," Musk said back in September.

According to documents in Chinese about the Gigafactory Shanghai shared on Twitter by Tesla fans, the Tesla "Model 25k" could be coming out of China as soon as 2022. The previous assumption was that so cheap a Tesla would hit the market in 2024-2025, according to Tesla Facts.

"Tesla could import them to Europe and offer them for €24,900 - addressing vast majority of the European automotive market by revenue," Tesla Facts says, noting that by using Model 3 chassis as basis "they won't compromise on safety."

Tesla has just started taking orders for the Model Y in China at a lower-than-expected price.

Earlier this month, Tesla said it delivered half a million cars last year. The total 2020 deliveries of 499,550 vehicles are just 450 lower than the 500,000 target Musk had set, and they beat analyst expectations.

"In 2020, we produced and delivered half a million vehicles, in line with our most recent guidance. In addition, Model Y production in Shanghai has begun, with deliveries expected to begin shortly," the EV maker said in a short statement accompanying the figures.

To compare, in 2019, Tesla delivered around 367,500 vehicles globally for the full year, which was then 50 percent more than the previous year and in line with its full-year guidance for 2019.

Last week, Tesla surpassed Facebook in terms of market value, becoming the fifth most valuable company in the S&P 500. There are now only four companies with a market value higher than Tesla's— Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet.   

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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