Conflicting news stories this week suggest Tesla may be once again planning a sub-$30,000 electric vehicle (EV). However, the news is far from confirmed, and there are reasons to be skeptical.
The news comes not from Tesla but from Deutsche Bank.
According to Yahoo Finance, “Deutsche Bank is upping its price target for Tesla following investor meetings where Tesla revealed more about its upcoming vehicles.” At the meeting, Deutsche Bank says, Tesla head of investor relations Travis Axelrod said the brand would launch a car with a price tag under $30,000 after subsidies in the first half of 2025.
Deutsche Bank nicknamed the car “Model Q.” Tesla has not publicly addressed the report.
Why It Might Be Real
Not A Telsa App, ironically a Tesla fan site, reports, “Tesla has already been speaking to suppliers and is looking to begin volume production of the vehicle sometime around June 2025.”
NATA has been a reliable source for some Tesla news in the past. The site has some very specific claims about the new model.
The site claims the model “will supposedly be about 15% smaller and 30% lighter than the Model 3, with an approximate length of 3,988 mm, or 157 inches. For scale, the Mini is 157 inches, while the Model 3 is 185 inches, so it’s fairly compact.” They report it will use a lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO 4) battery, which is less expensive to build than the lithium-ion batteries in other Tesla products.
Why It Might Not Be Real
When Tesla has launched new products in the past, the automotive press has typically had years of notice and leaked photos of the model in testing. Tesla isn’t known for producing new cars quickly or in secret.
The company had long planned a sub-$30,000 car, the Model 2, but CEO Elon Musk canceled it early in 2024, and laid off much of the team responsible for developing it.
The Washington Post reports, “Earlier this year, top executives at Tesla gathered in Palo Alto to sell CEO Elon Musk on a line of compact cars that would bring the electric-vehicle revolution to budget-conscious consumers across the world.” Musk, however, “Axed the proposal, amid budget constraints, according to two people close to Musk who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.”
Why It Might Be Real, but Not News
A third possibility might explain the whole ordeal. Road and Track notes that the rumored Model Q could simply be “an updated version of an existing model.” The lowest-priced version of the Model 3 starts at about $42,000 before applying the federal government’s $7,500 EV tax credit. “The reported seven-month lead time to launch, the small price delta, and the current lack of a shorter-range, bare-bones Model 3, we wouldn’t be shocked if Tesla was set to offer an even more affordable version of its compact sedan,” said Road and Track.
A Model 3 with a lithium iron phosphate battery could squeeze under the $30,000 line with the tax rebate. That would also explain why no Tesla fans seem to have spotted a new model in testing.
We’ll bring more information as it emerges.
