Tesla is delaying the promised launch of a more affordable electric car by several months, Reuters reports. The new model, which is likely to be a very stripped-down Model Y, was supposed to debut in the first half of this year, but now may not arrive until late 2025 or early 2026, the report said.
All of this comes amid falling Tesla sales in many parts of the world due to a combination of an outdated car lineup, Musk’s far-right politics and his involvement in the US government, and the underperformance of the Cybertruck.
CEO Elon Musk first teased the idea of a $25,000 Tesla at the company’s Battery Day event in 2020. Tesla was developing a new platform that would be 50% cheaper to produce, which it planned to use to create a new model, often called the Model 2, as well as the company’s mythical robot taxi.
But Musk ultimately abandoned the idea of creating a car on the new platform. Instead, he reportedly refocused Tesla on developing cheaper versions of the Model Y SUV and Model 3 sedan.
