Tesla is working on next-gen electric car platform for half the price
Elon Musk announced that Tesla’s engineering team had turned its focus on a next-generation electric car platform that will be half the price of the Model 3/Y platform.
For years now, Tesla has been talking about making cheaper electric vehicles, but inflation and high demand for electric cars have led to prices going up instead.
The automaker has been talking about a next-generation platform enabling a $25,000 electric car in the past. At one point, CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla was aiming to release the cheaper vehicle as soon as 2023.
However, Musk announced that Tesla wasn’t working on the cheaper electric car in 2022 as its focus shifted to the Optimus robot and ramping up Model Y production.
The CEO even suggested that cheaper electric vehicles might not be in Tesla’s plans anymore due to self-driving having a bigger impact on cost per mile.
During the conference call that followed the release of Tesla’s Q3 2022 financial results, Musk confirmed that it is still in the plans and that Tesla has shifted its engineering power to developing the next-generation EV platform that will enable cheaper electric cars:
It’s the primary focus of our new vehicle development team, obviously. At this point, we are done with the engineering for Cybertrucks and for Semi. So, it’s obviously what we’re working on, the next-generation vehicle, which will be probably be about half the cost of the 3 and Y platform. It will be smaller, to be clear.
It sounds like a smaller Tesla vehicle platform that will enable electric cars between $25,000 and $35,000 is in development.
Musk added that this new platform aims to produce more volume than “all of Tesla’s other vehicles combined.”
He added:
Obviously, we’re going to take everything we learned from S, X, 3, Y, Cybertruck and Semi into that platform. But we are on a 2-for-1 target. We’re trying to get to that 50% [of cost] number again.
The CEO believes that Tesla’s next-gen vehicle platform is going to be able to produce electric cars for half the cost, labor, and factory space that it takes to produce a Model 3, which currently starts at $47,000.
Electrek’s Take
Glad that we get a confirmation that cheaper electric cars are back in the cards for Tesla, though we should take the cost predictions with a grain of salt since Tesla doesn’t have a great track record on that.
The Model 3 was supposed to start at $35,000, which it only briefly did and that was before the inflation crisis, and the Model S was supposed to start $50,000, which it also briefly did but with a software-locked version that was quickly discontinued.
Therefore, I am not putting that much weight into the cost predictions, but if the goal is cheaper mass production of smaller electric cars, Tesla will certainly end up with a platform that enables smaller and cheaper electric cars, which will increase the EV market.
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Hyundai is about to launch a new electric SUV in China. With its big debut coming up, Hyundai just dropped a sneak peek, and it looks like it could be the IONIQ 4. Check it out for yourself in the video below.
Is Hyundai teasing the IONIQ 4?
We caught our first glimpse of the new EV model last month after Beijing Hyundai released a few official “spy” photos.
Despite the camouflage, you can see a few design elements, like a light bar across the front, slim LED headlights, and a closed-off grille. At first, it almost looks like a smaller version of the IONIQ 9, Hyundai’s first three-row electric SUV, but with a much sportier, shaped profile.
Beijing Hyundai released a new teaser for the upcoming electric SUV this week. The video shows “a wave of high-end operations” as the vehicle dances across the snow.
The video highlights features like real-time torque control, high-speed cornering, and the SUV’s impressive body control while driving around cones.
Hyundai’s new electric SUV is being called “OE” internally, according to The Korean Car Blog, suggesting it could be an IONIQ model.
All other Hyundai IONIQ EV models were also codenamed with an “E” internally, which is raising speculation that this could be the IONIQ 4.
Like most global OEMs, Hyundai is fighting to compete in an intense Chinese EV market, which is dominated by domestic automakers like BYD.
Hyundai opened its first overseas R&D center last year in China to spearhead its comeback. It will work with local suppliers and tech companies to develop EVs designed for Chinese buyers. The new electric SUV is expected to launch in China later this year, followed by three new energy vehicles, including EVs and EREVs.
Beijing Hyundai will release more information on April 16, with the electric SUV set to “challenge the limit of driving performance.”
What do you think of Hyundai’s new electric SUV? Is this the IONIQ 4? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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Charge point provider char.gy has secured a £130 million contract to install 6,000 curbside EV chargers for Brighton and Hove City Council (BHCC) – the UK’s largest installation of its kind.
London-based char.gy has also been awarded a 15-year contract to operate and maintain the charging network.
Installing Level 2 chargers curbside, where most drivers in the UK park, will enable more people to take advantage of cheaper charging rates while juicing up their EVs overnight. (charg.gy’s pay as you go night tariff, between midnight and 7 am, is £0.39/kWh, compared to its £0.59/kWh day tariff.)
John Lewis, chief executive of char.gy, said the project is “a huge moment for the UK and its EV ambitions. This partnership alone will empower thousands of residents to confidently make the switch to electric vehicles, knowing they have easy access to chargers.”
Brighton and Hove City Council is among the first to tap into the government’s Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund, designed to help English local authorities roll out charging solutions for residents without off-street parking. Future of Roads Minister Lilian Greenwood said making EV charging as accessible as possible is “crucial to making the switch to electric a success.”
The UK now has over 75,000 public EV chargers, according to the Department for Transport—and it looks like the country’s on pace to hit its 2030 target. Back in December, the National Audit Office said the rollout is “on track” to meet the DfT’s estimate that at least 300,000 chargers will be needed by the end of the decade.
Read more: Meet the UK’s largest solar + storage EV charging ‘Superhub’
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