Tesla CEO Elon Musk gestures as he visits the development website of Tesla’s Gigafactory in Gruenheide close to Berlin, Germany, August 13, 2021.
Patrick Pleul | Reuters
Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated throughout the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call that the corporate will not launch any new fashions this 12 months, and is not presently creating a $25,000 automotive.
In his opening remarks, he stated that the persevering with chip scarcity would make it unattainable to launch new mannequin autos with out leading to fewer whole autos being delivered.
“If we had launched say a brand new automotive final 12 months, we’d — whole car output would have been the identical due to the constraints — the chips’ constraints significantly.” He continued, “So, we is not going to be introducing new car ranges this 12 months. It might not make any sense.”
Later, in response to a query a few lower-priced Tesla for mainstream shoppers, Musk stated that venture is just not presently underway.
“We’re not presently engaged on the $25,000 automotive,” Musk stated. ” In some unspecified time in the future we are going to. We’ve got sufficient on our plate proper now. An excessive amount of on our plate, frankly.”
Musk has repeatedly urged a $25,000 Tesla is feasible. He stated in 2018 it could take Tesla about three years to develop — although he did not present a timeline for when it’d occur. And in 2020, Musk urged on the firm’s shareholder’s assembly that Tesla would launch such a car within the next three years.
“About 3 years from now, we’re assured we are able to make a really compelling $25,000 electrical car that is additionally absolutely autonomous,” he claimed in 2020. Musk is infamous, nonetheless, for being overly optimistic together with his predictions.
As a substitute of rolling out new fashions, together with the Cybertruck and Semi, in 2022, Tesla will deal with its driverless car tech improvement, and scaling manufacturing at its present factories this 12 months, executives stated on Wednesday’s earnings name.
