Tesla has plans for a new mass-market electric vehicle codenamed ‘Redwood’ in mid-2025 that would start at $25,000 – making it the cheapest EV available.
The Elon Musk-owned company allegedly sent request quotes to suppliers last year, projecting a weekly production of 10,000 compact crossovers when production starts in June 2025, according to a new report.
The billionaire promised in 2020 that customers would get a cheaper electric vehicle – and ‘Redwood’ could be part of that plan.
The move may be Musk’s strategy to attract more buyers, as Tesla’s cheapest model – the Model 3 – at $43,900 saw a 15 percent decrease in sales last year compared to 2022.
Tesla may have plans for a new mass-market electric vehicle codenamed ‘Redwood’ in mid-2025 that would start at $25,000 – making it the cheapest EV available. The Model 3 (pictured) is Tesla’s cheapest vehicle at $43,900
People familiar with the matter revealed details to Reuters, which noted that Tesla has a track record of missing its targets for launches and pricing, and it would take time to build volume as proposed in notes to suppliers.
Cybertruck production has been delayed and slow to accelerate – and its $60,990 starting price is 50 percent higher than Musk touted in 2019.
However, Tesla quietly increased the starting price tag to $79,990 following the official launch in December.
‘They have been overly optimistic on most of their new product launches. Volume output is more likely to begin in 2026,’ one of the sources said.
Musk said last year that Tesla’s factory in Texas would start churning out affordable electric vehicles.
The Elon Musk-owned company allegedly sent request quotes to suppliers last year, projecting a weekly production of 10,000 compact crossovers when production starts in June 2025
Making a profit from the cheaper EVs will be challenging, given the costs of batteries as well as traditional difficulties in producing quality inexpensive vehicles.
Tesla in recent years tore down a Honda Civic, whose price starts at $23,950 in the United States, to study how to make cheaper cars, two separate sources said.
The next-generation Tesla architecture, internally called ‘NV9X,’ will include two or more models, said the two people and one of the initial sources.
Tesla also plans to build cheaper cars at its factory near Berlin, and is interested in building a factory in India to produce less expensive electric cars, sources said previously.
News of ‘Redwood’ came after Tesla held its quarterly results report earlier this month.
Investors have been hammering Musk to produce compact vehicles in a bid to increase delivers.
Tesla has a track record of missing its targets for launches and pricing, and it would take time to build volume as proposed in notes to suppliers. Cybertruck (pictured) production has been delayed and slow to accelerate
During the call this month, deliveries were forecasted to reach 21 percent this year – well below the long-term annual target of 50 percent that Musk set about three years ago.
Musk said in May that Tesla was working on two new products, with the potential for combined sales of five million vehicles a year.
‘Both the design of the products and manufacturing techniques are head and shoulders above anything else that is present in the industry,’ he said at Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting.
The plans included an inexpensive robotaxi and an entry-level, $25,000 electric car based on the same vehicle architecture, according to Walter Isaacson’s biography of Musk released in September, which includes interviews with the CEO and executives.
Musk said in 2022 that Tesla would make a dedicated self-driving taxi with a futuristic look in 2024, after several misses at its goal of achieving full self-driving capability.
He and other Tesla executives laid out plans last March to halve the cost of its next-generation vehicles but did not provide a timeframe for the launches.
