Key Takeaways
- Tesla’s inexpensive EV venture “Redwood” could also be shelved as focus shifts to Robotaxi.
- Redwood was speculated to be a compact crossover that may leverage new manufacturing applied sciences, doubtlessly serving because the platform for Tesla’s long-rumored Robotaxi venture.
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 inexpensive EV in 2024. Following an early 2024 report from Reuters, Musk spoke concerning the venture, dubbed Redwood, throughout Tesla’s Q4 2023 earnings call on Jan. 24, 2024.
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“Our present schedule says that we’ll begin manufacturing towards the top of 2025, so someday within the second half,” Musk stated. 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 recognize, I do not wish to blow your minds, however I am usually optimistic concerning time.” Reuters lately published a report claiming Tesla had shelved the Mannequin 2 to give attention to robotaxi improvement, one thing Elon Musk was fast to dispute. Whereas we had been set to seek out out extra concerning the Robotaxi throughout an August eighth unveiling, the reveal has now been pushed again till no less than October of this 12 months.
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Shareholders and the press received their first actual replace, and one thing of an admission that plans had shifted, throughout the firm’s most up-to-date earnings name. In discussing Q1 2024 earnings, Musk acknowledged that new, extra inexpensive Tesla fashions would go into manufacturing in “early 2025, if not late this 12 months.” Although Tesla additionally acknowledged that these new vehicles will likely be constructed utilizing the corporate’s present manufacturing platform and manufacturing services, 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 venture might have been pushed even additional down the highway.
Whereas we look forward to Redwood to ultimately, presumably, arrive, this is the whole lot we all know concerning the venture, together with a quick have a look at its historical past.
A brief Tesla and Musk historical past lesson
The Grasp Plan
In 2006, Musk laid out his plan for a way Tesla would at some point manufacture a mass-market and inexpensive electrical automobile, aiming to shift shoppers from fossil fuel-powered autos to a brand new electrical commonplace. He stated the corporate would accomplish this partly by beginning with luxurious EVs just like the Tesla Roadster, after which working its approach all the way down to extra inexpensive fashions.
“The technique of Tesla is to enter on the excessive finish of the market, the place prospects are ready to pay a premium, after which drive down market as quick as doable 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 actually a extra inexpensive electrical sedan aimed on the mass market.
In 2008, Tesla launched the Tesla Roadster, a high-performance sports activities automotive that may 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 provide 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 actually a extra inexpensive electrical sedan aimed on the mass market. In actuality, the Mannequin 3 competed on the decrease finish of the luxurious phase towards fashions just like the BMW 3 Sequence. In 2020, Tesla launched the Model Y, a compact crossover SUV that in 2023 turned the best-selling car in the world. The Tesla Cybertruck, a slight deviation from the corporate’s authentic path, lastly started making its method to shoppers in December 2023.
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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 typical client. Other than the aim value, not a lot has been recognized through the years concerning the next-gen automotive codenamed “Redwood.” Here’s what we do know.
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Altering ambitions
Based on earlier reporting from Reuters, earlier than they reported the cancellation of the venture, 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 a variety of — a variety of new know-how, like, an amazing quantity of latest, revolutionary manufacturing know-how right here… I’m assured that when it’s going, it will likely be head and shoulders above every other manufacturing know-how that exists wherever on the earth, it is subsequent stage,” he stated.
As manufacturing ramps up Tesla would add manufacturing strains at different factories resembling 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, based mostly on the belief that the corporate will ultimately crack really full self-driving. Whereas it was thought that the $25,000 automotive would ultimately function the platform for that venture, 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 every other manufacturing know-how that exists wherever on the earth, it is subsequent stage,” Elon Musk.
The subsequent 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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