During the company’s Q3 2022 earnings call, CEO Elon Musk and other executives revealed new details on Tesla’s next vehicle platform after the Model 3 and Model Y, and if the company is able to live up to the projections, it will be a game changer in the automotive industry.
The details were revealed as the result of an institutional investor question asked using the Say technology platform.
The anonymous investor asked how much the company is expecting to see the cost of goods sold (COGS) drop in adding the third vehicle platform, after seeing a 50% reduction when the company shifted to Model 3/Y from Model S/X.
“The progression from Tesla’s first platform with S / X to the second platform with 3 / Y led to a 50% reduction in COGS. When do you see Tesla’s third platform being released and what level of COGS reduction could you achieve?”
Elon Musk and the other Tesla executives said it will follow suit, revealing four things about Tesla’s next generation vehicle platform.
The first is that it will be half the cost of the existing Model 3/Y platform, which should help lower the price of entry into the Tesla vehicle ecosystem.
The second was that it will be smaller in size than the Model 3/Y platform. Although this isn’t a surprise considering the progression of Tesla’s existing vehicle lineup.
Thirdly, and perhaps most important from an investor perspective, Tesla is expecting the new platform to exceed Model 3 and Model Y production combined. This is a bold statement to make considering the Model Y is expected to become the best selling vehicle in the world next year.
Finally Musk also noted the next platform is “the primary focus of the vehicle development team.” This is somewhat in contrast to Musk’s statements in the Q1 earnings call in which he said the company is not currently working on a $25,000 car, a price point which has been rumoured for the next Tesla vehicle.
Musk noted that the company is always forward-looking but did not go into any other specifics about expected release date for the next-generation vehicle, although Tesla’s Vice President of Investor Relations Martin Viecha said earlier this year it won’t come before the launch of the robotaxi platform in 2024.
