Key Takeaways
- Tesla’s inexpensive EV undertaking “Redwood” could also be shelved as focus shifts to Robotaxi.
- Redwood was purported to be a compact crossover that might leverage new manufacturing applied sciences, probably serving because the platform for Tesla’s long-rumored Robotaxi undertaking.
The future at Tesla is lower than clear, as substantial layoffs, remembers, manufacturing delays, and basic instability have crept up in latest 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 undertaking, 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 definitely 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 wish to blow your minds, however I am usually optimistic relating to time.” Reuters just lately published a report claiming Tesla had shelved the Mannequin 2 to deal with robotaxi growth, one thing Elon Musk was fast to dispute. Whereas we have been set to search out out extra concerning the Robotaxi throughout an August eighth unveiling, the reveal has now been pushed again till at the very least October of this 12 months.
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Shareholders and the press acquired their first actual replace, and one thing of an admission that plans had shifted, through 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 automobiles 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 might have been pushed even additional down the street.
Whereas we look forward to Redwood to finally, probably, arrive, this is all the pieces we all know concerning the undertaking, together with a quick take 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 the way Tesla would someday manufacture a mass-market and inexpensive electrical car, aiming to shift customers 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 means all the way down to extra inexpensive 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 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 in reality a extra inexpensive electrical sedan aimed on the mass market.
In 2008, Tesla launched the Tesla Roadster, a high-performance sports activities automobile that might function the corporate’s debut car. 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 by way of 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 in reality a extra inexpensive electrical sedan aimed on the mass market. In actuality, the Mannequin 3 competed on the decrease finish of the posh section towards 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 unique path, lastly started making its option to customers in December 2023.
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It appears after an extended journey that Tesla is getting near reaching Musk’s grasp plan. The purpose has at all times been a $25,000 electrical car, accessible to the typical client. Other than the purpose worth, not a lot has been recognized through the years concerning the next-gen automobile codenamed “Redwood.” Here’s what we do know.
Tesla
Undertaking Redwood, the consumer-friendly EV
Altering ambitions
In keeping with 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 car at its Austin, Texas Gigafactory.
“There’s plenty of — plenty of new know-how, like, an incredible quantity of latest, revolutionary manufacturing know-how right here… I’m assured that after it’s going, will probably be head and shoulders above every other manufacturing know-how that exists anyplace on the planet, it is subsequent degree,” he stated.
As manufacturing ramps up Tesla would add manufacturing strains at different factories similar to its Mexico location. Tesla had reportedly predicted a weekly manufacturing quantity of 10,000 autos to start out. Certainly one of Tesla’s long-term objectives has been to create a fleet of robotaxis, based mostly on the idea that the corporate will finally crack really full self-driving. Whereas it was thought that the $25,000 automobile 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 after it’s going, will probably be head and shoulders above every other manufacturing know-how that exists anyplace on the planet, it is subsequent degree,” 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 car 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 corporations like China’s BYD.
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