2mo ago

Musk now says it's 'pointless' to build a $25,000 Tesla for human drivers

When Reuters reported in April that Tesla had scrapped plans for a long-promised, next-generation $25,000 electric vehicle, the automaker’s stock plunged. Chief Executive Elon Musk rushed to respond on X, his social-media network.

“Reuters is lying,” he posted, without elaborating. Tesla’s stock recovered some of its losses.

Six months later, Musk appears to have backed into an admission that Tesla dropped its plans for a human-driven $25,000 car. He said in an Oct. 23 earnings call that building the affordable EV would be "pointless” unless the car was fully autonomous.

Technology @lemmy.ml

www.reuters.com /business/autos-transportation/musk-now-says-its-pointless-build-25000-tesla-human-drivers-2024-11-05/

116 28

68 comments

"We can't make an affordable Tesla unless we come up with something that would make it too expensive."
Gotcha.

Chinese EV it is, then!
- Until we tax them ridiculously (50-100%) to keep things "fair" for the american auto makers that refuse to build anything smaller than a chevorlet suburban.
  
  Along with European, Japanese, and South Korean automakers. Nobody is building EVs this cheap because no other country's government is dumping hundreds of billions of dollars into selling them well below their actual cost.
  
  This is why hes suddenly against it, theres no way Chinese EVs are coming stateside, and the US is even leveraging Mexico to keep them out of Mexico too. He doesn't want to make the smaller profit margin thing everyone wants, because the government is just going to ban what everyone wants instead.
- I so badly just want a tiny electric vehicle. I don't travel much. Just need it to go around town and maybe a town over.
  
  Chevy Bolt? My coworker has one and loves it.
  
  Do you need windows? Renault has a couple of small ones, the Twizy and Zoe, in order of size. Dunno if they're still available. Else in my country they have the BYD dolphin and Smart One Plus.
  
  A used Bolt is pretty cheap.
  
  Smart Car? E-bike?
  
  The Volvo EX30 looks promising
  
  Sounds like a tram/light rail would be the perfect EV for you

Musk is a fascist bigot. I wouldn’t drive a Tesla if it was given to me for free. Just walking up to it and seeing that T would piss me off. In a way, I’m glad he refuses to build a cheap EV.
- it's easier to raise tariffs so that efficiently produced foreign electric cars are just as expensive. God bless America
- Oh, Musk is way too powerful and totally nuts, he's gone off the deep end. Also he's gone full asshole, there's hardly anything redeemable about him these days.
  That said, I'd drive any car that was given to me for free, and I won't pretend otherwise.
  Also, despite Musk, Tesla has done amazing things for the auto industry, I'm extremely pleased to see this shift to EVs across the board.
  
  Oh, I’d take a free car; but instead of driving it I’d turn around and sell it immediately. Then I’d buy something that wasn’t a badge of shame.
  
  As someone who works in the industry, and done plenty of work for Tesla, I can create a far greater list of all the things they've fucked up in the industry, including electrification.