During the Investor Day conference on March 1, 2023, Elon Musk spoke repeatedly about the future generation of Tesla electric cars, known at the moment as “next-gen.” That’s all Tesla has announced on the matter so far.
We were eagerly awaiting the announcement of an affordable $25,000 Tesla Model 2 and a redesigned Tesla Model 3 at the Investor Day conference hosted by Elon Musk on March 1, 2023. But not to be. No new product announcements were made, except for the V4 superchargers. And again, we are missing details.
Instead, we’ve been treated to many conversations about how Tesla has slashed the cost of its electric cars in the past, with the Model S and Model 3. Above all, what we’re most interested in here is the mention on many occasions. to Tesla’s next generation electric car.
What is the “next generation” Tesla?
Elon Musk later used the term ” Next Generation to refer to future cars, such as the hypothetical Model 2, the Robotaxi or the Robovan. We can imagine that the Tesla Model 2 and the Robovan are represented in this image taken from the presentation.
The conference focused heavily on how Tesla can successfully cut costs to offer the most affordable electric cars possible. This is one of the bases of Elon Musk’s new Master Plan, Part Three. Achieve switching the entire global fleet of cars to 100% electric to eliminate the use of fossil fuels and cut energy use on Earth in half.
To successfully reduce the production costs of its future electric cars, Tesla has announced many changes as detailed in the media. numeral.
The three steps to reduce the prices of electric cars
The first step is to thoroughly review the way in which electric cars will be produced within the Gigafactory of the American brand. The parallelization of tasks is proposed, before being able to save a lot of time, and space, in the assembly lines. This is where the famous Giga Press makes even more sense, to minimize the number of different parts in a car.
The other path announced by Tesla is the transition from the low-voltage architecture of electric cars from 12 volts to 48 volts. This then makes it possible to reduce the diameter of the electric wires, reduce energy losses and therefore reduce weight and costs.
The other route Tesla has explored in cost reduction will come to life with an all-new electric motor. This new engine will eliminate the use of rare earths, which had appeared in the brand’s engines since 2017 with the launch of the Model 3. Tesla will therefore return to a composition that had proven itself in the old Model S and Model X .
The result is an engine that would only cost $1,000 to produce. And above all, it would require much less space within the factory to be designed and produced. This will further reduce the price of the electric cars that will be equipped with them.
During the Investor Day conference, Elon Musk refused to talk about the products, namely electric cars. The Tesla boss announced that there would be another conference “later” to address these issues. So it could ultimately be a matter of the Tesla Model 2, the redesigned Tesla Model 3, and the Tesla Robovan.
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