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Tesla Has Officially Scrapped Its Best Project

Musk seems determined to destroy Tesla from the inside out.

Will Lockett
Predict
Published in
7 min readNov 1, 2024

Musk has developed several utterly moronic Tesla projects over the years. This includes the Tesla Solar Roof, the Tesla Bot, The Boring Company, Tesla lithium mining, the 4680 battery, FSD, the Robotaxi, the Cybertruck, and the second-gen Tesla Roadster, just to name a few. All were meant to solidify Tesla’s lead in the market and secure ample amounts of future revenue. However, they are all half-baked ideas that are nowhere close to hitting the market, and those that actually have hit the market are not what was promised and have failed to produce any serious momentum. But there is one zany project that stood out amongst the rest. If the Model 3 was Tesla’s Ford Model T moment, this would be their VW Beatle moment: the $25,000 Model 2. This would bring the EV revolution to the working classes, push sustainable transport to a new phase, and potentially make Tesla billions of dollars. Or, at least, it would have if Musk hadn’t officially killed it off. But why did Musk scrap this crucial project? And what does this mean for the future of Tesla?

Musk has been promising a smaller, cheaper model than the Model 3 for years, and plans to produce it have been leaked and announced numerous times. As such, we know it was going to cost $25,000 before tax, be approximately the size of a VW Polo, use a 53 kWh battery pack that was most likely going to be sourced from BYD, have 250 miles of range, and charge from 10% to 80% in around 25 minutes. We even know that Musk and Tesla were planning on selling over a million units of this vehicle a year and that it would potentially share the same platform as the upcoming Robotaxi.

But, back in April, when Tesla scheduled the Robotaxi “We Robot” event that happened two weeks ago, Reuters reported that they had been informed by someone inside Tesla that the Model 2 project had been completely scrapped to save money and pay for the exuberantly expensive development of the Robotaxi. Musk, who has had a long-time feud with Reuters for accurately reporting faults at Tesla, lambasted them for this report, calling it a lie. And, as a result, for months, we didn’t know if the Model 2 was coming or not.

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Predict
Predict
Will Lockett
Will Lockett

Written by Will Lockett

Independent journalist covering global politics, climate change and technology. Get articles early at www.planetearthandbeyond.co

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