Tesla boss Elon Musk has flagged that the world’s dominant electric vehicle car maker is working on two new EV products that could have an annual production rate of five million units – nearly four times the number of EVs the company produced last year.
“There are two new products that I think you will be very excited about,” Musk told the company’s annual shareholders’ event in Texas.
“Both the design of the products and the manufacturing techniques are head and shoulders above anything else that is present in the industry.”
Musk did not reveal any further details about the two new products, but they are widely expected to be a smaller, much lower cost version of the Model Y, sometimes referred to as the Tesla 2, and the much-touted “robotaxi” that will use its full self driving technology.
An image of one of the products, presumably the robotaxi, was briefly flashed across the screens as Musk spoke (see image above).
Even more impressive was Musk’s prediction of production numbers for these two new products.
“If I were to guess, with these new products alone, I would say, we will probably make, this is just Elon’s guess, so don’t sue me,” he said. “But Elon’s guess is that we will probably make in excess of 5 million units of these two models combined.”
To put that number in context, the best selling Toyota Rav4 SUV sold just over 1 million units in 2022. This year, the Model Y will surpass that sales figure to become the best-selling vehicle in the world of any fuel type.
More details about the new products will possibly be released in the coming months and years, but the so-called Tesla 2 will be half the cost of the Model 3 to manufacture and is aimed at a much larger market globally.
It will be built at Tesla’s new GigaMexico facility and according to Tesla will include cutting-edge manufacturing methods and techniques that will reduce costs to make EVs more affordable and accessible to the masses.
This is quite a big deal as 5 million units of cleaner, more affordable vehicles on our roads will help decarbonise the transport sector even quicker, making many more cities and countries cleaner with a reduction in air pollution.
Later in the call, Elon also confirmed that the more bespoke and much delayed Roadster is also finally in the design phase with a potential production date for next year.
Full Video of Tesla’s Shareholders’ Meeting:
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.