Tesla watchers are eagerly waiting for the new cheaper models.
You have questions, I have answers.
Here I answer all the questions about the new models.
How much will they cost?
How many will Tesla make each year?
How quickly will they be made ?
How many will be made each year?
Here we do a deep dive to answer questions?
What should Tesla do?
How much margin?
Model C Base: 50 kWh, 250-260 miles, 6.5s, Price $25,000 (172,500 CNY), ~$20,000 cost.
Model C Plus: 55 kWh, 275-285 miles, 6.0s, Price $27,500 (189,750 CNY), ~$22,000 cost
Model C Performance: 60 kWh, 300-310 miles, 5.5s, Price $29,999 (207,000 CNY),~$23,000 cost.
How many? How fast ?
Get to 3 million+ unit annual sales run rate by late 2026—roughly 18 months after a May/June 2025 production start ?
Besides selling a lot of cars, what should Tesla want to learn with the new cars?
What does Tesla want from the supply chain from this car and from the cybercab?
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
Tesla’s designs are beyond stale. You can barely distinguish a 2011 from a 2025 model.
To succeed in the next 5 to 10 years: Tesla plugin hybrid. 150 miles EV, 300 miles gas or other. $50k and a bit SUVish without being cybertruck and more butch than X. Maybe collaborate with a gas/ hybrid/ EV existing company to license tech? EV is floundering in NA.
I continue to think an EV with a modest range, combined with a genset trailer for long trips, would be a winning combination in a rational market. The genset would have added functionality as an emergency generator, after all.
The problem is that people don’t tend to buy EVs as a result of rational calculation, and this approach morally offends a lot of the people who are the actual market for these vehicles.
With this new pricing I could almost justify buying a Tesla, if I didn’t already have an ICE vehicle which, with good luck, should serve me for at least another decade. Probably longer than I’ll still be driving, at this point.
It was surprisingly effective for Tesla to disguise the new model with some big wheel covers, paint on tires, a solid roof panel. They succeeded in avoiding an Osborne effect and most media just took the CyberCab at face value. They’ve been losing some sales to anticipation of the Refreshed Model Y anyway.
They were pretty open a couple years ago with this planning and it makes obvious sense. They want to be able to ramp up production flat out without any concerns that regulatory acceptance of unsupervised FSD won’t keep pace. With both a low price consumer model and a dedicated CyberCab on the same platform they can produce as many as they’re capable of and fine tune how many are in each category on a month to month basis. I’m curious if the steering wheel and pedals will be plug and play and removable by a local service center.