Charged EVs | Tesla says it’s “constructing” a brand new product. Is that this the long-awaited Mannequin 2?

Much less-affluent EV followers have been hoping Tesla would produce a budget-priced EV since…effectively, for the reason that firm’s founding. Over the previous few months, we’ve seen rising proof {that a} cheaper Tesla—which the chattering lessons have unofficially dubbed Mannequin 2—is within the works.

In April, Tesla revealed Master Plan Part 3, which included teaser-level data about three new autos to be constructed on a next-gen platform: a compact automotive, a industrial van and a bus. In keeping with the Grasp Plan, the compact could have a 53 kWh LFP battery pack, and Tesla expects to promote it in even larger quantity than Fashions 3 and Y.

It’s extensively believed that the brand new mannequin will probably be constructed on the deliberate Tesla Gigafactory Mexico. Samuel García Sepúlveda, Governor of the Mexican state of Nuevo León, instructed Milenio that Tesla will construct “an entire new manufacturing line” at Giga Mexico for “the financial mannequin that’s going to be bought massively.”

One other tidbit of knowledge was revealed at Tesla’s annual shareholder assembly this week, the place the corporate’s CEO stated, “We are literally constructing a brand new product. We are literally designing a brand new product. There are two new merchandise that I believe you can be very enthusiastic about. And each the design of the merchandise and the manufacturing strategies are head and shoulders above anything that’s current within the trade.”

A display screen subsequent to the mercurial mogul confirmed a obscure define of a curvy Tesla-style automotive. The unstable visionary provided no timeline, and no particulars of the brand new fashions aside from that they are going to be inexpensive, and that “we’ll most likely make in extra of 5 million models a 12 months of those two fashions mixed.”

Tesla-watchers instantly started parsing the perplexing prophet’s pronouncement. What precisely did he imply by saying that the corporate is “truly constructing a brand new product?” Lengthy-time Tesla interpreter Fred Lambert famous that “constructing” often means manufacturing in Tesla-speak, however speculated that it may merely imply the constructing of a prototype.

Lambert expects the 2 autos in query to be the anticipated cheaper and smaller hatchback, and the long-promised “robotaxi,” an EV particularly designed to function a self-driving taxi.

Sources: TheStreet, Electrek, Business Insider, Teslarati