Key Takeaways
- Tesla’s reasonably priced EV undertaking “Redwood” could also be shelved as focus shifts to Robotaxi.
- Redwood was purported to be a compact crossover that will leverage new manufacturing applied sciences, doubtlessly serving because the platform for Tesla’s long-rumored Robotaxi undertaking.
The future at Tesla is lower than clear, as substantial layoffs, recollects, manufacturing delays, and basic 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 reasonably priced EV in 2024. Following an early 2024 report from Reuters, Musk spoke in regards to the undertaking, dubbed Redwood, throughout Tesla’s Q4 2023 earnings call on Jan. 24, 2024.
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“Our present schedule says that we are going to begin manufacturing towards the top of 2025, so someday within the second half,” Musk mentioned. He then hedged on the timeline, including, “We — I imply, I will not actually say — say issues with — they need to be taken with a grain of salt since I am usually optimistic. However, you understand, I do not need to blow your minds, however I am usually optimistic concerning time.” Reuters not too long ago published a report claiming Tesla had shelved the Mannequin 2 to concentrate on robotaxi improvement, one thing Elon Musk was fast to dispute.
Tesla Robotaxi: What we know
Tesla’s Robotaxi undertaking can be unveiled 8/8/24. Within the meantime, here is all the things we all know in regards to the undertaking.
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 said that new, extra reasonably priced Tesla fashions would go into manufacturing in “early 2025, if not late this yr.” Although Tesla additionally said 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 undertaking could have been pushed even additional down the highway.
Whereas we watch for Redwood to finally, probably, arrive, here is all the things we all know in regards to the undertaking, together with a quick have a look at its historical past.
Tesla
A brief Tesla and Musk historical past lesson
In 2006, Musk laid out his plan for a way Tesla would at some point manufacture a mass-market and reasonably priced electrical automobile, aiming to shift shoppers from fossil fuel-powered autos to a brand new electrical normal. He mentioned the corporate would accomplish this partly by beginning with luxurious EVs just like the Tesla Roadster, after which working its means right down to extra reasonably priced 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 attainable to larger 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 the truth is a extra reasonably priced electrical sedan aimed on the mass market.
In 2008, Tesla launched the Tesla Roadster, a high-performance sports activities automotive that will function the corporate’s debut automobile. 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 when it comes to 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 the truth is a extra reasonably priced electrical sedan aimed on the mass market. In actuality, the Mannequin 3 competed on the decrease finish of the posh section in opposition to 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 solution to shoppers in December 2023.
Tesla models compared: Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, and Cybertruck
This is all the things you might want to learn about Tesla Motors, from the Roadster via to the Mannequin Y and Cybertruck.
It appears after a protracted journey that Tesla is getting near reaching Musk’s grasp plan. The aim has all the time been a $25,000 electrical automobile, accessible to the common shopper. Apart from the aim 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.
Tesla
Undertaking Redwood, the consumer-friendly EV
In response to earlier reporting from Reuters, earlier than they reported the cancellation of the undertaking, 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 automobile at its Austin, Texas Gigafactory.
“There’s quite a lot of — quite a lot of new expertise, like, an incredible quantity of recent, revolutionary manufacturing expertise right here… I’m assured that when it’s going, it will likely be head and shoulders above another manufacturing expertise that exists wherever on this planet, it is subsequent stage,” he mentioned.
As manufacturing ramps up Tesla would add manufacturing traces at different factories reminiscent of its Mexico location. Tesla had reportedly predicted a weekly manufacturing quantity of 10,000 autos to start out. One in every of Tesla’s long-term objectives has been to create a fleet of robotaxis, primarily based on the belief that the corporate will finally crack really full self-driving. Whereas it was thought that the $25,000 automotive would finally function the platform for that undertaking, the shape issue and way forward for each initiatives is now much less clear.
“I’m assured that when it’s going, it will likely be head and shoulders above another manufacturing expertise that exists wherever on this planet, 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 automobile 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 firms like China’s BYD.
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