Tesla Model Q Redwood

• Tesla Model Q ‘Redwood’ – sub $30k model launching in H1 2025, 15% smaller than Model 3 at half the cost?

  In Cars, International News, Tesla Motors / By Danny Tan / 10 December 2024 10:10 am / 7 comments

  

  Tesla is set to launch a new EV called the ‘Model Q’ in the first half of 2025. This is the much-anticipated sub-US$30,000 (RM132,933) model that will compete against the BYD Dolphin (facelift has just surfaced) and Volkswagen ID.3, among other compact electric hatchbacks.

  Tesla’s most affordable model was apparently revealed in an investor meeting with Deutsche Bank attended by the company’s head of investor relations, Travis Axelrod, reported by GlobalChinaEV. It seems to run contrary to CEO Elon Musk’s recent comments of a sub-US$25k non-autonomous Tesla as “pointless, silly and completely at odds with what we believe,” though.

  The Model Q, codenamed ‘Redwood’, will be built on Tesla’s latest platform. It is said that the Q will be 15% smaller and 30% lighter than the Model 3 sedan, with overall length of around four metres. The plan is to fit in a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery in 53 kWh and 75 kWh capacities, powering one or two motors. Estimated range of 500 km.

  Crucially, the Q’s manufacturing cost will be approximately half of the Model 3’s, allowing for a lower selling price. The report says that post-subsidy, the Model Q could be priced as low as US$25,000 (RM110,781) in its home market. Should the Model Q be made at Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory, the selling price could be even lower, expected at around 140,000 yuan (RM85,446).

  This is an interesting development that we’ll keep tabs on, but as with all things Tesla, it’s better to only believe once the car hits the showrooms. Anyway, what do you think of a RM100k Tesla hatchback?

   

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• Cheaper Tesla models coming earlier than expected – before 2H 2025, won’t use “unboxed” production

  In Cars, Tesla Motors / By Paul Tan / 26 April 2024 6:23 pm / 0 comment

  

  Tesla revealed some details about its future product roadmap when it comes to cars in its recent Q1 2024 earnings update. It says there are new vehicles on the way including more affordable models, and they are aiming to launch them before the second half of 2025.

  However, these new vehicles will not be built on the originally planned ‘unboxed’ manufacturing strategy, but instead will use current manufacturing lines and share aspects with current platforms.

  According to Tesla, although this method will achieve less cost reductions compared to using the unboxed manufacturing strategy, it is lighter on capex expenditure.

  Tesla’s most affordable model is the Model 3 RWD, which competes against the BYD Seal. The Model Y competes against the BYD Sea Lion. It has no competitors for cheaper BYD models such as the Atto 3, Dolphin and Seagull.

  While the unboxed “Model 2” is now dead, the unboxed manufacturing strategy is still alive, as Tesla still intends to use it for the robotaxi project which it plans to reveal more about on 8/8 this year.

   

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• Tesla “Redwood” to be a pure robotaxi, “Model 2” H422/NV91 cancelled, no US$25k low-cost car – report

  In Cars, Tesla Motors / By Paul Tan / 5 April 2024 11:44 pm / 10 comments

  

  Tesla has reportedly scrapped plans for a low-cost electric vehicle (EV), instead concentrating on a “robotaxi”, according to Reuters citing unnamed sources and internal messages sighted by them.

  If true, this shift occurs amid significant competition from Chinese EV manufacturers like BYD, who offer vehicles at much lower price points, such as the BYD Seagull and the BYD Dolphin.

  The reportedly-canceled entry-level car, sometimes referred to as the Model 2 or “Redwood”, was anticipated to start at around US$25,000. Reuters also says it was called the project NV91 internally and H422 externally.

  A decision to refocus on a robotaxi instead might have come about due to increased confidence in Tesla’s Full Self Driving (FSD) capabilities, as user feedback on the new overhauled V12 powered by end to end neutral networks has been overwhelmingly positive.

  In Malaysia, Full Self Driving has been offered as a RM32,000 option in Malaysia, but we cannot use it yet.

   

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• Tesla plans to build new affordable model in 2025 – Model 2 “Redwood” to be firm’s USD25k vehicle?

  In Cars, International News, Tesla Motors / By Anthony Lim / 24 January 2024 2:32 pm / 2 comments

  

  Tesla has informed suppliers that it wants to start production of a new mass-market electric vehicle, codenamed “Redwood,” sometime in mid-2025. This was reported by Reuters, which cited information gleaned from four people familiar with the matter.

  Two of the sources told the news agency that the planned model was a compact crossover, which falls in line with the body-style of the affordable vehicle that the electric automaker was rumoured to be planning a few years ago. In 2021, it was reported that the company was aiming to introduce a hatchback-styled offering, and it was suggested that the car could be the USD25,000 EV it had been long looking at.

  A sketch revealed by the company in 2020 of a short wheelbase vehicle concept indicating an electric city car (as seen above) provides an idea of how the “Redwood” – which has been unofficially called the Model 2 by various quarters – could shape up. The new model is expected to sit on the company’s next-gen platform architecture, internally known as NV9X.

  Tesla CEO Elon Musk has long whetted fans’ and investors’ appetites for affordable EVs built on next-generation, cheaper electric car platforms. In 2018, he revealed that the automaker could be making more affordable cars that cost under US$25,000 in three years’ time.

  

  Currently, the automaker’s cheapest offering is the Model 3.

  USD$25,000 is around RM119,000 at today’s exchange rates, which is around the upper end of the BYD Dolphin‘s price range in Malaysia.

  While the timeline has moved along, it looks like the shelved plans are being resurrected, if what the sources say are correct. Musk had said last year he was concerned about the impact of high interest rates on consumer demand for big-ticket items like cars, which could be the prompt for the move.

  At present, its cheapest offering is the Model 3, which currently has a starting price of USD38,990 (RM184,580) in the United States, and so building cheaper models – including an entry-level USD25k car – would allow Tesla to compete with cheaper gasoline-powered vehicles and a growing number of inexpensive EVs such as those made by China’s BYD, which overtook Tesla as the world’s top EV maker in the final quarter of 2023.

  According to the sources, Tesla sent “requests for quotes,” or an invitation for bids, for the “Redwood” model, to suppliers last year, forecasting a weekly production volume of 10,000 vehicles. Production would begin in June 2025, three of the sources told Reuters.

   

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