Tesla Plans to Produce Multiple Compact EVs For Next-Gen Fleet

Renowned EV marque Tesla has reiterated its plan to develop and produce a slew of compact EVs as part of their next-generation fleet. Announced during Tesla’s 2023 Investor Day, the next-gen compact EVs will cost half as much to build as the marque’s current smallest model, the Model 3 sedan.

Unfortunately, Tesla is keeping things under the garb for now, with the firm yet to share any details on what the new EVs will look like, or even the price points and expected launching date.

"I'd love to show you what I mean, and unveil the next-generation car, but you're going to have to trust me on that until a later date," Tesla design boss Franz von Holzhausen commented during the event.

Prior to this revelation, there have been rumours circulating around the possibility of a smaller, compact new Tesla model ever since the marque announced the plan to produce a sub-US$25,000 (RM111,920) EV back in 2020. For comparison, the cheapest Tesla model currently available in the market is the Model 3 base spec, priced at aroundUS$42,990 (RM192,457) for the US domestic market.

These upcoming EVs will underpin Tesla’s next-gen EV platform that comes in a more compact form compared to the ongoing Model 3. This new EV architecture will feature the marque’s next-gen electric motor that not only will cost less to build, but also have a lighter impact on the environment, as it does not utilise any rare earth materials.

“We have designed our next drive unit, which uses a permanent magnet motor, to not use any rare earth materials at all," said Tesla’s powertrain boss, Colin Campbell during the presentation.

In order to improve the efficiency of this new models’ production, Tesla has also announced a new manufacturing programme that provides better utilisation of space and time in the manufacturing process. Instead of working with large units at once, all the various parts of the new car will be built independently instead.

This is part of the firm’s overall plan to ramp up its production and reach their goal of building 20 million cars annually. Tesla has projected that by utilising this new manufacturing programme for next-gen vehicles, the firm will be able to reduce up to 50% in production costs, as well as up to 40% of reduction in the manufacturing footprint.