Speculation Swirls Around Mystery Tesla Model
MELBOURNE, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA - 2025/04/04: Tesla Model Y set for reveal during media launch of ... More Melbourne Motor Show 2025. (Photo by Alexander Bogatyrev/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
A new Tesla model – possibly a minimalist version of an existing model – is slated to begin production this month, fueling speculation about what exactly it is.
Tesla executives have been pretty clear about timing. 'We're still focused on bringing cheaper models to market soon. The start of production is still planned for June,' said Tesla chief financial officer Vaibhav Taneja during the first quarter earnings conference call on April 22.
A June 2 Reuters story claims to confirm that the so-called $25,000 'Model 2' was canceled by CEO Elon Musk. This comes more than a year after Musk denied the original April 2024 Reuters report about cancellation of the project, saying at that time that 'Reuters is lying." The Model 2 – nomenclature used by analysts to designate a low-cost Tesla – was supposed to be a revolutionary low-cost vehicle that used Tesla's latest and greatest manufacturing technology to reduce production costs. Signs now point to a less radical design based on existing platforms.
Reuters now reports that something much less ambitious called E41 is planned but claims it is delayed until later this year or early next year. That timing would seem to contradict what Tesla's CFO said (above) in the Q1 earning conference call, though Lars Moravy, VP Vehicle Engineering at Tesla, did mention that the 'ramp maybe -- might be a little slower than we had hoped initially" when referring to the future affordable models.
Last week, a Model Y in camo wrap at the Tesla Fremont, Calif. factory sparked speculation that Tesla was about to start production of a new stripped down Model Y. But pushback on social media claimed that it was simply the unannounced Performance version of the Juniper Model Y. And camo-wrapped Model Ys have appeared elsewhere that appear to be the Performance version. That didn't stop speculation that the Fremont images appear to show different proportions than the standard Tesla Model Y, possibly shorter or more compact, which would be in line with a stripped down model.
Unsupervised robotaxis will hit roads in Austin in June, Elon Musk said in an interview with CNBC. Unsupervised means the car has no human driver – like Waymo's robotaxi service. 'We have thousands of cars that are being tested,' Musk said, adding that initial deployment will be very small but Musk expects that "we will probably be at 1,000 within a few months" then expand to other cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles.
That event could also host new vehicles. Tesla has already demonstrated the radical-looking Cybercab. And it's probably not a coincidence that Tesla is also scheduled to start production of the new unannounced affordable model in June. That upcoming model is expected to use a mixed-platform approach, combining components from Tesla's next-generation platform and existing Model 3/Y architecture. The new affordable Tesla is expected to be autonomous-capable and FSD compliant.
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