Report: Tesla To Build Fabled Affordable Electric Car in Germany
We’re back here again. New reports state that Tesla is working toward an affordable EV model and note that it will produce the vehicles at its German location near Berlin. As these things tend to go with Tesla, the information came from an unnamed source, as reported by Automotive News.
The report noted that Tesla plans to build a car with a 25,000-Euro starting price, or just shy of $27,000. While the Model 3’s prices have fallen in recent times, the least expensive model in the line is $38,990 before tax credits and local incentives.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk visited the plant last week and thanked the staff for their hard work. Reports came from that meeting that he made the affordable vehicle announcement while visiting staff. The Model Y is already built in that location and is Europe’s best-selling EV.
The automaker has long worked toward a unique casting production method that cuts costs and complexity. While it makes vehicles harder to repair after a collision, the process can drastically reduce production time and costs.
Tesla doesn’t have a PR department and doesn’t typically telegraph its moves ahead of time, so there’s no way of knowing, or even asking, if or when it plans to bring the car to the United States. There is an appetite here for cheaper models, as automakers promised affordable EVs, only to roll out more expensive variants first. Chevy originally announced the Equinox EV with a $30,000 starting price, but as it approaches early deliveries, the base price has climbed to $35,000, and the almost $ 60,000 version is launching first.
[Image: gofra/Shutterstock.com]
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Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.
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At this point, EV automakers should just offer an "10-year electricity voucher" that costs about the same on a monthly basis as the cost of filling up a gasoline car, and then offer price cuts for anyone who buys that voucher (by taking advantage the difference in price between gasoline and electricity). Basically, don't call it an installment plan.
"The automaker has long worked toward a unique casting production method that cuts costs and complexity. While it makes vehicles harder to repair after a collision, the process can drastically reduce production time and costs."
The main take away I get from this article is that this unique casting production method is beneficial to Tesla in that it cuts costs and complexity. Tesla as with many manufacturers is less concerned about the ultimate consumer when it comes to easy of repair and cost of repairs. This is nothing new in that many components on today's vehicles are designed for ease of assembly. It is easier to put an evaporator core in a dashboard in the assembly of a vehicle and saves the manufacturer costs but replacement is harder and takes more labor thus making a replacement that might cost a couple of hundred dollars into one that can cost a thousand or more. That is just one example another example is with a timing chain or belt enclosed with a water pump inside the engine which saves space under the hood and costs in assembly of a vehicle but is more expensive in labor to replace and failure of either the water pump or the timing chain or belt could destroy the engine. Both components should be replaced at the same time.