Key Takeaways
- Tesla’s inexpensive EV venture “Redwood” could also be shelved as focus shifts to Robotaxi.
- Redwood was presupposed to be a compact crossover that might 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, remembers, manufacturing delays, and normal 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 in regards to 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 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 typically optimistic. However, , I do not need to blow your minds, however I am typically optimistic concerning time.” Reuters just lately published a report claiming Tesla had shelved the Mannequin 2 to give attention to robotaxi growth, one thing Elon Musk was fast to dispute. Whereas we had been set to seek out out extra in regards to the Robotaxi throughout an August eighth unveiling, the reveal has now been pushed again till at the least October of this 12 months.
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Shareholders and the press obtained 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 said that new, extra inexpensive Tesla fashions would go into manufacturing in “early 2025, if not late this 12 months.” Although Tesla additionally said that these new vehicles shall 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 street.
Whereas we await Redwood to ultimately, presumably, arrive, here is every part we all know in regards to 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 the way Tesla would sooner or later manufacture a mass-market and inexpensive electrical automobile, aiming to shift shoppers from fossil fuel-powered automobiles 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 method 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 attainable to greater 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 truth 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 automobile. Following the Roadster, it launched the Mannequin S in 2012. On the time, the Model S pushed the boundaries of what an EV might 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 in truth a extra inexpensive 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 Collection. 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 solution to shoppers in December 2023.
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It appears after a protracted journey that Tesla is getting near attaining Musk’s grasp plan. The aim has all the time been a $25,000 electrical automobile, accessible to the common shopper. Other than the aim worth, not a lot has been identified through the years in regards to the next-gen automobile codenamed “Redwood.” Here’s what we do know.
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Challenge Redwood, the consumer-friendly EV
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 provide the automobile at its Austin, Texas Gigafactory.
“There’s loads of — loads of new know-how, like, an amazing quantity of recent, revolutionary manufacturing know-how right here… I’m assured that after it’s going, it will likely be head and shoulders above some other manufacturing know-how that exists anyplace on the planet, it is subsequent stage,” he mentioned.
As manufacturing ramps up Tesla would add manufacturing strains at different factories corresponding to its Mexico location. Tesla had reportedly predicted a weekly manufacturing quantity of 10,000 automobiles to begin. Considered one 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 actually full self-driving. Whereas it was thought that the $25,000 automobile would ultimately function the platform for that venture, the shape issue and way forward for each tasks is now much less clear.
“I’m assured that after it’s going, it will likely be head and shoulders above some other manufacturing know-how that exists anyplace on the 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 corporations like China’s BYD.
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