Tesla CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly announced the development of the first budget model of an electric car. He did not confirm recent rumors that the project has been canceled.
Tesla has indeed put the project dedicated to the creation of a future budget electric car worth $ 25 thousand on the back burner, writes Electrek with reference to sources.
According to the interlocutors of the publication, the project had the code name NV9. As part of the project, the company worked on a next-generation automotive platform, which is expected to provide much cheaper electric cars.
The automaker previously talked about two future cars on this platform. These are the cheaper and smaller Model 3, known as the $25,000 Tesla, or Model 2, and the new Tesla Robotaxi self-driving car, designed from the ground up.
In December, Musk allegedly told the Tesla team in Austin that the NV9 and the Texas Gigafactory expansion for a new, cheaper next-generation model were priorities for 2024. Recently, however, the project was completely defunded, and many of the people involved were fired.
Instead, Musk wanted to focus on Robotaxi and building a giant data center for it. The project was supposed to be completed by the end of August, but is reportedly already behind schedule.