[UK] Report that Tesla not going to produce low cost “Model 2”

[DoricJim]

Report by Reuters here. Also states that they will focus on robotaxis instead.

Can see a few potential impacts being: the share price pummelled, Musk out and Tesla being ripe for sale in the coming future. Thoughts?

Could also be nonsense of course.

Edited to add: big caveat being that Reuters seems to have an agenda against Musk and Tesla if you look at their history. Which is a bit of a surprise given their normally factual stance they usually take on most topics.

 

[squarepeg77]

Elon Musk shuts down report that Tesla is scrapping its '$25,000 Model 2' electric car

Elon Musk has shut down a report that Tesla is scrapping its ‘$25,000 Model 2’ electric car in favor of...

electrek.co

 

[DoricJim]

If you read the full Electrek piece they seem to think that there could be something to this. Musk would never bend the truth of course to bolster the share price?

 

[Jason71]

Elon Musk shuts down report that Tesla is scrapping its '$25,000 Model 2' electric car

Elon Musk has shut down a report that Tesla is scrapping its ‘$25,000 Model 2’ electric car in favor of...

electrek.co

I guess it's definitely true then!

 

[squarepeg77]

Robotaxi and a cheaper Model 2, would seem to be orthogonal products. Surely they have the engineering capacity to do both?

They’ll need cheaper vehicles - or serious price cuts on the current line-up - to counter new vehicles from other manufacturers and to increase the TAM

 

[speedyranger74]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1776345482564170115

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

Musks response was hardly balanced.. he just went down the “liar liar” path and didn’t actually say it’s not dead.. there’s a subtle but important difference.

He then announces a date for unveiling the robotaxi.. it looks like he did that in response rather than as a controlled and planned announcement. I can imagine a few people at Tesla are now thinking WTF

Time will tell.

 

[DoricJim]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1776345482564170115

No media outlet is perfect but:

Reuters - Bias and Credibility

 

[MrBadger]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1776345482564170115

Does Musk really mean lair champion or is it meant to be liar champion?

 

[2020M3SR]

Musks response was hardly balanced.. he just went down the “liar liar” path and didn’t actually say it’s not dead.. there’s a subtle but important difference.

He then announces a date for unveiling the robotaxi.. it looks like he did that in response rather than as a controlled and planned announcement. I can imagine a few people at Tesla are now thinking WTF

Time will tell.

I'm no Peter Parker but my Spidey senses draw me to the same conclusion.

His liar post is completely ambiguous, to the point of being almost irrelevant due to the lack of clarity. It wasn't a clear debunk of the article and the follow up 8/8 robotaxi release is telling.

Incidentally, 8th letter of the alphabet is H and 88 has a hidden meaning, although that could be coincidental.

 

[init6]

Report by Reuters here. Also states that they will focus on robotaxis instead.

Can see a few potential impacts

I see what you did there

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

When he can call a bloke a pedo and argue it away in court, he can argue calling Reuters liars as being irrelevant to the Model 2 article and we’re all stupid for making the connection.

In the broadest sense this is back to the very toxic days of haters hating, fanboys doing whatever the verb is for fanboying and generally indicates a sign that there’s a lot of pressure on him, and that’s not exactly difficult to see with the last quarter sales figures even if there is a long list of valid reasons, some outside his immediate control, why that might be the case.

The drift of AI staff from Tesla to a separate company he owns is also very dodgy - he’s brain draining Tesla for an interest he completely owns because they won’t give him a bigger slice of Tesla. Thats going to get called in at some point too as “not acting in the shareholders interest” which is an obligation of all directors.

 

[Roy Batty]

Musks response was hardly balanced.. he just went down the “liar liar” path and didn’t actually say it’s not dead.. there’s a subtle but important difference.

He then announces a date for unveiling the robotaxi.. it looks like he did that in response rather than as a controlled and planned announcement. I can imagine a few people at Tesla are now thinking WTF

Time will tell.

If he explicitly said that Reuters are lying about the Model 2 he would then be potentially in trouble with the SEC if it was subsequently discovered that the Model 2 wasn't being put on the back burner and Robotaxi prioritised.

 

[Roy Batty]

The drift of AI staff from Tesla to a separate company he owns is also very dodgy - he’s brain draining Tesla for an interest he completely owns because they won’t give him a bigger slice of Tesla. Thats going to get called in at some point too as “not acting in the shareholders interest” which is an obligation of all directors.

Been lots of talk about Musk being rejected from the Tesla board, maybe this is him preparing.

 

[Zilla91]

Musk says the Reuters article is a lie, but doesn’t specify what exactly is a lie.

If you read the article, it would appear that Reuters have all the receipts so I’d be more inclined to believe them over a ketamine addled guy who has form for telling porky pies

 

[GatorMeat]

I'm no Peter Parker but my Spidey senses draw me to the same conclusion.

His liar post is completely ambiguous, to the point of being almost irrelevant due to the lack of clarity. It wasn't a clear debunk of the article and the follow up 8/8 robotaxi release is telling.

Incidentally, 8th letter of the alphabet is H and 88 has a hidden meaning, although that could be coincidental.

Elon's initial response was, "liar!"
Then hours later, Elon announces the Robotaxi unveil, which seems to confirm the article's content. If Rueters lied, wouldn't Elon announce the 8/8 unveil for Model 2?

 

[GatorMeat]

Elon's initial response was, "liar!"
Then hours later, Elon announces the Robotaxi unveil, which seems to confirm the article's content. If Rueters lied, wouldn't Elon announce the 8/8 unveil for Model 2?

Also, wouldn't this news mean that Robotaxi is near, and the stock price should now value in robotaxi and shoot to the moon?
Robotaxi's are certainly orders of magnitude more valuable than an economy compact car, right?

 

[Tony Hoyle]

It's just elon trying to up the share price after the disappointing quarter.

The hardware for a self driving car is the easy bit.. I'm sure they'll have a concept car to show off. The software is hard, and they're nowhere near that.

 

[2020M3SR]

The hardware for a self driving car is the easy bit.. I'm sure they'll have a concept car to show off. The software is hard, and they're nowhere near that.

Yes, this is the reality. The only thing that has changed in recent days is that the compact $25,000 car has been shelved.

As you mention, this is just a reveal of the packaging that goes with the main product - FSD software. And everyone knows how far away from the finish line that is.

8th August is just a fancy dress party in all honesty. Unless of course they reveal extra redundancy, lidar perhaps. But I'm not sure that exposes them to huge legal challenges after promising that MY M3 etc would also be a Robotaxi.

 

[FastLaneJB]

The Model 2 originally made a lot of sense a few years ago but now that means competing with the cheap Chinese brands that get government subsidies and are dumping cars onto the market. Now it looks like that could be a crowded, very low to no margin market with a lot of risks.

I don’t think maybe they’ve cancelled it but maybe moved it to a “Coming Soon” status from “Two Weeks”. So maybe still use that platform for Robotaxi I guess maybe just in US where there are some Robotaxi’s already operating. The human drivable version might be pushed back to wait for the dust to settle on the cheap car price wars to see then when, if ever it makes sense to release it.

Otherwise Tesla will stick with mid to higher end market where price isn’t quite the only driver and they can differentiate with features and capabilities. Leave the low end to China and other low end brands.