American electric carmaker Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, hinted at the possibility of launching a new compact electric car that will be positioned below the Model 3. According to Business Insider, recently, while speaking to some analysts and investors, Musk expressed his opinion that Tesla cars are too expensive, stating his desire to offer a more affordable electric car. Currently, Tesla sells four electric vehicles, including the Model 3, Model S, Model Y and Model X. In the United States, Tesla’s most affordable offering right now is the Tesla Model 3 that starts at $37,990.
Talking about making affordable electric cars, Musk said, “I think we will not succeed in our mission if we do not make cars affordable. Like the thing that bugs me the most about where we are right now is that our cars are not affordable enough. We need to fix that.” While he did not go into the specifics of the new compact electric car, he did say, “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 3 and Y and with Cybertruck and Semi. So, it’s a long way to go with those. I think we’ll do the obvious things.”
However, it’s very much possible that the new compact electric car will not be made in the US nor in China, but rather in Germany. Earlier this month, replying to a Twitter user’s direct query about Tesla coming up with a European style hatchback, Musk hinted at the possibility of designing and developing such a car in Germany. Currently, the company is building its new vehicle manufacturing plant, better known as the Gigafactory, in Berlin.
More recently, Tesla has finally zeroed in on the location for its second Gigafactory for the US, which will come up near Arizona, Texas. Tesla is making an investment of $1.1 billion in building the new plant, which is expected to create up to 5000 new jobs in the US state. The new factory will mainly serve the eastern part of the country and will manufacture the upcoming Cybertruck, along with the Model 3 and Model Y. Recently, Elon Musk also hinted at the possibility of coming up with a second Gigafactory for Asia, outside China, sometime in the future.
