Tesla officially confirmed earlier this week that it is developing a next-generation vehicle platform focused on affordability, potentially at about half the cost of the platform supporting the best-selling Model Y and Model 3.
“Obviously, this is the primary focus of our new vehicle development team,” said Musk, suggesting that this is where the company has shifted after the delays of Cybertruck and Semi, which have been pushed back several years along with the Roadster.
“It will be smaller, to be clear,” Musk added, anticipating that the third platform will surpass the production of all its other vehicles combined.
The addition of the smaller platform does not indicate a departure from larger vehicles. Musk also provided updates for the Semi, with first deliveries scheduled for December 1, and the Cybertruck, which may not arrive until well into 2023 now. He emphasized that he is continually improving existing products.
To speculate, the platform would give Tesla a path to acquire a much larger share of the global vehicle market and could support an entirely new generation of vehicles with a size not only compact for North America but reasonably sized for even larger quantities in Europe, India, and Asia.
This clarification comes after a long series of seemingly contradictory statements about whether there will be more affordable Tesla models in the future.
Earlier this year, Tesla’s head of investor relations said that a cheaper Tesla was an option and that a more affordable Tesla was needed to become a high-volume automaker. Beyond that point, the automaker has emphasized that cell supply constraints that had been limiting product expansion have largely been alleviated.
