Tesla is reportedly planning on mid-2025 for the launch of a new, mass-market electric vehicle (EV), internally codenamed “Redwood.”
The idea of a mass-market Tesla with a price tag of $25,000 has been around for several years. Rumours about this new EV have been heating up in recent months however. Tesla was originally planning to build it at Giga Mexico, but later shifted those plans to Giga Texas, where company executives will be able to keep a close eye on progress.
We also recently got a few details about it from Walter Isaacson’s biography of CEO Elon Musk, in which he revealed it will have a futuristic design, much like that of the Cybertruck.
Musk has also spoken recently about the production line plans for Tesla’s next-generation EV, telling Sandy Munro in an interview at the Cybertruck delivery event that those plans are “quite far advanced” and that the “revolution in manufacturing that will be represented by that car will blow people’s minds.”
The one piece of information that is still very much in the air is when this new EV will launch. Originally planned for a 2020 release, the project has seen multiple delays, but according to a new report, it looks like Tesla may be closing in on a potential production start date of mid-2025. Citing multiple sources with knowledge of the matter, Reuters says Tesla has been sent out “requests for quotes” to suppliers last year, in which production is slated to start in June 2025. In these requests Tesla was forecasting a production volume of 10,000 vehicles per week.
Taking a page out of their competitors playbooks, the report says Tesla has been studying a car known for its affordability, the Honda Civic, with the company tearing units down to gain insights into cost-effective manufacturing.
While Tesla plans to initially build the next-gen EV at Giga Texas, the company will expand and add more production lines at their other factories. Even though it was pulled from Giga Mexico, that factory will eventually build the next-gen platform, referred to internally as ‘NV9X.’ Last year Musk also announced it will be built at Giga Berlin, while recent expansion plans for Giga Shanghai are also expected to be for the next-gen platform.
