A new Tesla prototype was spotted again, reigniting speculation among Tesla shareholders, even though itβs likely just a Model Y, potentially a bit smaller, and the upcoming stripped-down, cheaper version.
Over the last few months, there have been several sightings of what appears to be a Model Y with camouflage around Teslaβs Fremont factory.
It sparked a lot of speculation about it being the new βaffordableβ compact Tesla vehicle.
Thereβs confusion in the Tesla community around Teslaβs upcoming βaffordableβ vehicles because CEO Elon Musk falsely denied a report last year about Teslaβs β$25,000β EV model being canceled.
The facts are that Musk canceled two cheaper vehicles that Tesla was working on, commonly referred as βthe $25,000 Teslaβ in early 2024. Those vehicles wereΒ codenamed NV91 and NV92, and they were based on the new vehicle platform that Tesla is now reserving for the Cybercab.
Instead, Musk noticed that Teslaβs Model 3 and Model Y production lines were starting to be underutilized as the Company faced demand issues. Therefore, Tesla canceled the vehicles program based on the new platform and decided to build new vehicles on Model 3/Y platform using the same production lines.
We previously reported that these electric vehicles will likely look very similar to Model 3 and Model Y.
In recent months, several other media reports reinforced this, and Tesla all but confirmed it during its latest earnings call, when it stated that it is βlimited in how different vehicles can be when built on the same production lines.β
Now, the same Tesla prototype has been spotted over the last few days, and it sent the Tesla shareholders community into a frenzy of speculations:
Electrekβs Take
As we have repeatedly reported over the last year, the new βaffordableβ Tesla βmodelsβ coming are basically only stripped-down Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.
They might end up being a little smaller by a few inches, and Tesla may use different model names, but they will be extremely similar.
If this is it, which is possible, you can see it looks almost exactly like a Model Y.
Itβs hard to confirm if itβs indeed smaller because of the angle of the vehicle compared to the other Model Ys, but itβs not impossible that the wheelbase is a bit smaller β although itβs hard to confirm.
Either way, the most significant changes for these stripped-down, more affordable βmodelsβ are expected to be cheaper interior materials, like textile seats instead of vegan leather, no heated or ventilated seats standard, no rear screen, maybe even no double-panned acoustic glass and a lesser audio system.
As previously stated, the real goal of these new variants, or models, is to lower the average sale price in order to combat decreasing demand and maintain or increase the utilization rate of Teslaβs current production lines, which have been throttled down in the last few years to now about 60% utilization.
If this trend continues, Tesla would find itself in trouble and may even have to close its factories.
