When Reuters reported in April that Tesla had scrapped plans for a long-promised, next-generation $25,000 electric vehicle, the automaker’s stock plunged. Chief Executive Elon Musk rushed to respond on X, his social-media network.
“Reuters is lying,” he posted, without elaborating. Tesla’s stock recovered some of its losses.
Six months later, Musk appears to have backed into an admission that Tesla dropped its plans for a human-driven $25,000 car. He said in an Oct. 23 earnings call that building the affordable EV would be "pointless” unless the car was fully autonomous.
“We can’t make an affordable Tesla unless we come up with something that would make it too expensive.”
Gotcha.
Chinese EV it is, then!
Until we tax them ridiculously (50-100%) to keep things “fair” for the american auto makers that refuse to build anything smaller than a chevorlet suburban.
Along with European, Japanese, and South Korean automakers. Nobody is building EVs this cheap because no other country’s government is dumping hundreds of billions of dollars into selling them well below their actual cost.
Those automakers are at least trying to compete by building small cars. I see more ads for electric f150s than i see for compact cars in north america.
The profit margins are insane compared to sedans.
Domestic manufacturers almost entirely phased out small cars long ago before EVs were even significant because they can’t build them as well as companies like Hyundai, Toyota, and Honda. Even those companies have phased out tiny cars because nobody in the US was buying them.
Why don’t you buy a Chevy Bolt, or Nissan Leaf if you want a small, cheap EV?
It isn’t they can’t build them, it is moreso they don’t want to because of profit margins and influences from CAFE standards makes small cars hard to build and big SUVs easier due to some backwards fuel economy regulations.
The same profit margins and CAFE standards that companies like Toyota, Hyundai, and Honda have to abide by too? This makes no sense as these companies were outselling domestic maker’s cars 5 to 1 in the exact same financial and regulatory environment.
Every country subsidized their auto industry, it’s just that all the benefit goes directly to ceos except in china apparently.
Ford received 9 billion in June.
Ford received a loan to use toward building new factories for EV production. In China, Ford would owned by the government and funded with taxpayer dollars directly.
This is why hes suddenly against it, theres no way Chinese EVs are coming stateside, and the US is even leveraging Mexico to keep them out of Mexico too. He doesn’t want to make the smaller profit margin thing everyone wants, because the government is just going to ban what everyone wants instead.
I so badly just want a tiny electric vehicle. I don’t travel much. Just need it to go around town and maybe a town over.
Chevy Bolt? My coworker has one and loves it.
Was looking at it but that’s like the $30k range, no? I can’t afford a 500/mo payment.
Get a couple year old one then.
If you’re on a budget why would you be looking at brand new cars?
China cars are like 3k-5k. I can afford that. Like even one of the China trucks is like 6k-7k or something. I don’t mind getting used, I just don’t want to spend 30k. Or really even above 10k.
Do you need windows? Renault has a couple of small ones, the Twizy and Zoe, in order of size. Dunno if they’re still available. Else in my country they have the BYD dolphin and Smart One Plus.
Americans aren’t allowed to buy BYD personal vehicles…
Or import European EVs that aren’t pre-approved. No Renault Twizy.
A used Bolt is pretty cheap.
The Volvo EX30 looks promising
Sounds like a tram/light rail would be the perfect EV for you
Can you come install one near me?
Your best option is voting for people who will build transit in your local elections
Il not saying DON’T do vote in local elections but solves the problem…in a decade or two…and it requires buy-in from surrounding districts.
It unfortunately does not address the short term needs of commuters
And if we never build it it will never address the needs of commuters. Your government doesn’t think twice about a new road or expanding an existing one but will delay transit for years.
Sure, but it’s not a one-or-the-other thing. The best solution now is to get a cheap EV AND vote for public transit
Detroit in the 70s had more GDP than NYC and took that money right to congress. To this day giant automotive lobbies are the reason for not only legislation in the US but also city planning (or lack thereof) and the removal of public transport. To think getting a railroad is anywhere near as easy as a road is disregarding the influence of millions of dollars from people who would lose money if that rail was built.
“Hi boss I can’t come into work today because the guy I voted for lost and there no light rail”
How can somebody just shout “they’re lying” to get their stock back up and get away with it?
Leon’s a leech.
There’s at least one sure-fire way to remove leeches.
Expect shit they try to bury in the election news cycle
They still don’t have fully autonomous 100k cars!
Well I guess he must know about some secret point to killing his own company.
