Elon Musk has tentatively confirmed that Tesla plans two new electric cars, including a compact electric car, to come after Cybertruck.
After unveiling the Cybertruck, Musk said that the electric pickup truck is Tesla’s last new product for ‘awhile’.
Yet, Tesla has recently given some indications that they are planning some other electric vehicles in the coming years.
Earlier this year, Musk said Tesla will design an electric car in China for the global market and it released a design drawing that showed a compact car.
Furthermore, a California official behind a new transit project said that Tesla is making a 12-passenger electric van for the Boring Company.
Now the CEO made new comments in line with those two new electric vehicles programs.
In a conference call following the release of Tesla’s Q2 2020 financial results, Musk answered a question about future Tesla vehicles by mentioning a compact electric car and a higher capacity vehicle:
“I don’t think we can comment on our detailed road map beyond what’s announced because we want to reserve that for product launches. But it would be reasonable to assume that we would make a compact vehicle of some kind and probably a higher capacity vehicle of some kind. These are likely things at some point. But I do think there’s a long way to go with Model 3 and Model Y, and with Cybertruck and Semi. So long way to go with those. I think we’ll do the obvious things.”
While the CEO is obviously being tentative in his comments, he is also pointing to specific new types of vehicles in Tesla’s product roadmap.
Electrek’s Take
I wouldn’t be surprised if those new vehicle programs are farther along than Elon is leading us to believe with his comments.
For the compact car, Tesla has publicly started taking design submissions.
As for the “higher capacity vehicle”, beyond the mention by the California official who is working with the Boring Company, Elon first mentioned Tesla making an electric van in his “Master Plan Part Deux‘ back in 2016.
Furthermore, Tesla is planning to bring the Cybertruck to market in late 2021.
Based on recent comments, the new Tesla Roadster should come around the same time.
Therefore, it would make sense for Tesla to bring new vehicles to market in 2022-2023 and if that’s the plan, it wouldn’t be surprising if they are already working on them.
What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.
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