I don’t yet have a transcript of the full Tesla Q1 2025 “Investor Call” with Elon Musk and other Tesla executives, which just finished moments ago, but Tesla’s VP of Engineering Lars Moravy just said that the long-rumored “cheap” Tesla will “resemble in shape and form the cars we make now.”
The company had long been expected to make a $25,000 car, with the company indicating it would use its new “unboxed” production model to produce a lot of cars very cheaply.
Then something changed. All of a sudden CEO Musk said that building such a car would be “silly” and “pointless,” because autonomous cars would be the future. He reiterated this idea again tonight, saying that driving a gas-powered car without autonomy in the future would be like riding a horse and talking on a flip phone.
Instead of a brand new car with a brand new production model, as far back as the Q1 2024 call last year, Musk was hinting that the next round of vehicles would be built on existing product lines and use a lot of what the company already has.
This has led many to speculate that the cheap new cars will be quite similar to Model 3s or Model Ys, with Electrek going so far as to say the new car would be a “stripped-down Model Y.” This was based on what was reported by site 36kr, which brought us this info:
People familiar with the matter told 36Kr that the new model is a “lower – priced Model Y”. Compared with the currently sold Model Y, there are basically no major changes in parts such as the battery, power system, and chassis of the new car.
“It is developed through the depop method,” revealed the person familiar with the matter. Depop is an internal development concept at Tesla, which means to quickly launch products by simplifying configurations while keeping the main functions unchanged.
Before the low – priced “Model Y”, Tesla launched a stripped – down and low – priced version of the “Model 3” in Mexico last August. In comparison, “the former is more led by the China team, while the latter is more led by the headquarters.”
On the call tonight, Tesla was asked about this, and Moravy did his best not to completely answer the investor’s question, talking instead about lowering monthly payments and using similar production lines.
Later on, during the analyst Q&A, the question was asked more directly, and Moravy gave a more direct answer, saying “they will resemble in form and shape the cars we make now.”
This seems to confirm the 36kr report that they’ll look substantially similar to the existing models. Tesla has already made a cheaper Cybertruck with RWD and a cloth interior.
Whether or not these new cars will be called Model Y and Model 3 isn’t known, nor exactly how Tesla will “depop” them. The decontenting might look similar to what Tesla did with the Model 3 in Mexico, which dropped some lighting, trim, added cloth seats, and removed the passenger screen. Exactly how much you can take out of an already spartan Model 3 is another open question.
Top photo: Tesla
I guess they will remove all the buttons?
Ideas to build a cheaper Model Y
1. Replace fancy seats with Naugahyde bench.
2. Column shifter.
3. Manual crank windows, front only.
4. Steelies and no wheel covers.
5. Replace center touchscreen with Amazon Fire tablet. Not included.
6. Drum brakes.
7. Incandescent lighting all around.
8. Keyed entry, ignition and trunk/hatch release.
9. Replace seat belts with ropes and instructions on how to tie a good knot.
10. Level 1 charging only. Optional 100 foot extension cord so you can steal you neighbors power.
Serious question: can’t they save a significant amount of money just by going with a smaller battery? The thing has a pretty significant range, and if we’re talking about a $25,000 car having it be more second car focused and not worrying about range makes a certain amount of sense.
What portion of a model three’s sales price is the existing battery?
The decontented Model Y could be called the Model 0.5 Y.
Model y
The dy: the derivative of the Y
Y Not
Y/2
Imagine the standalone entry-level model they could’ve built had they not spent hundreds of millions of dollars and multiple years developing a nonsense truck simply because the CEO thought it would be cool.
But at least that truck turned out to be massively profitable and completely rehabilitated the entire company’s image.
Charging is often mentioned here in the context of using EVs as a daily driver.
People shopping for a cheaper EV are generally going to have less access to charging at home.
There may be no demand for these things downmarket of where they sit right now. If I can’t conveniently charge a $40k model 3, I also can’t conveniently charge a $25k model 3.
I just feel like this guy is completely out of car ideas. Nobody believes the autonomy shyt he’s been slinging for a decade, so he’s been beating the $25k drum as a distraction lately. Neither will happen, but he’s lucky his ‘investors’ have the sophistication of meme coin speculators.
We already have $25k Teslas. There are over 1000 of them on Autotrader right now. They’re usually 2021 models with ~50k miles on them.
Those are actually $25k, not $25k after tax incentives in the state with the most generous EV policy.
By the end of summer, those could all be $15k Teslas.
Agreed you’re an anoos.
The house down the street had a murder suicide in it. Took a 5% hit when it sold.
You’re talking about a 40% discount because of a mildly autistic, opinionated CEO?
Many thousands of people are going to die because of the changes and cuts made to social support and disease prevention programs by Trump & Musk. A 100% hit to Tesla sales would be more than justified.
Lucky SOBs got a murder house AND a discount.