Recently Tesla CEO, Elon Musk was seen talking at the 2022 Indonesia B20 summit. During his talks with the interviewer, there came a topic of adorable EVs for India and Indonesia being named, “Model I”. Both countries need much more affordable EVs than Tesla’s Model 3. Elon Musk acknowledged that fact and stated that an affordable EV is being considered by the company and is definitely the way to go.
The changes come as the company expands globally, where the need to change according to local requirements increases. While Tesla did back out of coming to India because of high import taxes. Indonesia and China could be considered potential markets for affordable EVs from Tesla.
Over the years, whenever the idea of affordable EVs was brought up, Musk stated that it is not an option. In the recent Q3 earnings call, the opinion seemed to be changing. Now, with the recent appearance, it seems that the company is actually working on an affordable EV without compromising on the quality and features. While making EVs in local factories like China could relatively reduce the making costs, EV batteries and other EV materials costs are rising. Various experts have stated that the prices are not going to come down anytime soon.
Affordable EVs
Musk stated, “Yeah, I can’t speak too much about the future Tesla product development except to say that we do think that making a much more affordable vehicle would make a lot of sense. And we should do something.”
Musk did not mention the vehicle’s price or specs, though speculations in EV communities have long suggested that the company’s affordable car would likely be in the $25,000 range. As for specs, it would not be surprising if it gets sold as a single motor vehicle that’s built with megacasts and a structural battery pack to save on production costs. The affordable EV, however, would most definitely still be equipped with the company’s robust suite of safety features, from airbags to active and passive safety systems.
In markets like the US or Canada, the Model 3 could be considered an affordable one. There is a reason, after all, why affordable cars and motorbikes reign supreme in the auto segments of places like the Philippines. Even China, the world’s largest auto market and one of the strongest territories for the Tesla Model Y, has a large segment of car buyers that prefer affordable cars. Potentially more details are going to be revealed by the next earnings call.
