In other news, the sky is blue and water is wet.
According to Reuters in a report from late last week, Tesla is scaling back the introduction of a so-called ‘affordable EV’. Such a machine has been promised since Adam was an oakum picker, with the latest iteration allegedly being some sort of lower cost or stripped-out Model Y. Multiple sources close to Reuters apparently told the outlet that any such rig has been delayed and the promise of it showing up in the first half of this year is off the table.
Those same sources said the production of the car, codenamed E41, was supposed to kick off in America with other factories around the globe eventually adding the machine to their repertoires in order to supply local markets. Tesla is said to be jonesing for at least a quarter million of these vehicles in the United States alone; alert readers will recall that same figure (and double, even) was optimistically bandied about for the Cybertruck and we all know how that turned out.
It is also worth remembering that Elon Musk himself promised a new and less costly EV platform with prices in the $25,000 ballpark but later scuppered those plans in favor of robotaxis. What emerged from that effort was a two-seat vehicle, oddly configured with one chair in front of the other. Because if there’s anything the world needs right now, it is a robotaxi with the carrying capacity (and seating configuration) of a fighter jet. Priorities, people.
Tesla weathered its first decline in year-over-year sales last annum, a trend most analysts expect to continue for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which include Musk’s propensity to throw questionable hand gestures when he is not busy trying to create unpopular government agencies with infantile acronyms tasked with gutting programs without much oversight.
[Image: Tesla]
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