The Tesla Model 3 is indispensable on the streets. It was by far the best-selling EV in Europe last year and more than 40,000 have been registered in the Netherlands since 2019. That tastes like more. Tesla will eventually come up with a cheaper EV, AutoWeek is already looking ahead.
As the guru of the brand, Elon Musk is the man of big dreams and bold promises. Like a true mad scientist of the 21st century, he melts his vision into tangible products. Skeptics regularly question his statements and ideas, but nevertheless the SpaceX rockets are now flying back and forth and a street scene without Teslas is almost impossible to imagine, especially in the United States and Western Europe. Although you will also find flamethrowers in Musk’s product portfolio and he promises a new Roadster with rocket engines, the eccentric CEO certainly does not lack a sense of reality. At a major Tesla event (Battery Day) in September 2020, the arrival of a new Tesla was announced. That model should be a solid step below the Model 3.
Given the success of the Model 3 in particular and the fact that the brand reaches an enormous target group with the so-called Tesla experience, the expectations of the entry-level starter are high. The blue baby Tesla design you see in these computer drawings doesn’t come out of the blue. Tesla already shared a digital sketch of the new volume model, which made it immediately clear that it will be a hatchback with a high buttocks, a steeply sloping roofline and a typical Tesla nose. That steeply sloping roofline is not great news for those who regularly travel with more than just a co-driver, but it will undoubtedly provide the new compact Tesla with an aerodynamic benefit. That is favorable for the driving range. What to expect from the range of the officially unnamed new Tesla? Count on various engines and more than one size battery pack, but don’t be surprised if the basic version already kicks up to about 400 kilometers. Knowing Tesla, the electric lung capacity is combined with electric motors that provide impressive acceleration times, but it is not obvious that the emphasis is on that.
Tesla ‘Model 2’ – Illustration: Larson
Made in China
Musk gives an indication price of $ 25,000 for the base model, converted a small 22 mille. You can of course write such a starting price on your stomach. After all, the Model 3 was previously announced as the ‘$ 35,000-Tesla’, but the starting price of that model has always fluctuated between €45,000 and €50,000 in the Netherlands. On top of that, Tesla doesn’t seem to have any intention of skimping on its cheapest model. The baby Tesla is simply stuffed with software and hardware that should make autonomous driving possible and even Musk can’t squeeze a range of 400 kilometers from a tiny battery. No, Tesla is trying to make the hatchback that may be baptized Model 2 cost-effective by producing the car in its Gigafactory in Shanghai, China. That factory is also already spewing out large numbers of Models 3 intended for the European market, so we are no longer surprised by Chinese Teslas. Until the new factory in Berlin is ready, the popular Model Y will also come from China.
Slip-on
The question arises whether the new, smaller and above all cheaper brother of the Model 3 will actually become a reality in 2023 and whether it will really be on every street corner as a new electric everyone’s friend. Well, Musk has promised us crazier things. Whether the small Tesla will actually be the Opel Kadett of this century depends, among other things, on the price tag. We are aiming for a starting price of more than 30 mille and that is not a childish amount. In any case, it would make the ‘Model 2’ a formidable opponent of the Volkswagen ID3. The competitors are certainly not sitting still, so Tesla has work to do.
Shortly after AutoWeek number 3 went to press, in which this story appeared, it was announced that the compact Tesla will have to wait a while.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl