According to foreign media reports, investors have been counting on affordable electric vehicles to promote Tesla's growth into a mass-market automaker, but according to the news revealed by people familiar with the matter and the news seen by Reuters, Tesla has canceled affordable electric vehicles and will continue to develop driverless taxis (robotaxi) on the same small car platform.
Two people familiar with the matter said they learned of Tesla's decision to abandon the Model 2 at a meeting attended by dozens of employees, one of whom said the meeting took place in late February, and that "Elon's directive was to go all out to develop driverless taxis." ”
Another person familiar with the matter also confirmed that Tesla canceled the affordable car plan, saying that the new plan calls for the production of driverless taxis, but the production is expected to be much lower than expected for the Model 2.
Reuters looked at several pieces of information about Tesla's decision, including a message sent on March 1 by a project manager for an affordable car that the manager discussed the termination of the project with engineering staff and suggested that they delay telling suppliers about the "project cancellation."
Another person familiar with Tesla's plans expressed optimism about Tesla's decision to shift from an affordable car strategy to driverless taxis, which Musk sees as the future of mobility. But the person cautioned that Tesla's product plans could change again depending on economic conditions.
Image source: X
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment, while Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote on the social media platform X, "Reuters is lying." But he did not provide specific details. Soon after, Musk posted on X that Tesla would launch a driverless taxi on August 8.
Image source: X
On the same day, Musk also responded to a Tesla investor in another post with an emoji "eye", who speculated that Tesla was dedicating more resources to bringing driverless taxis to market.