The $25,000 Tesla You Can Drive Is Dead, And Autonomy Killed It

CEO Elon Musk said that “Having a regular, 25K model is pointless. It’d be silly,” during an earnings call

Elon Musk has just confirmed that a drivable $25,000 Tesla isn’t on the horizon, a revelation bound to frustrate many who had pinned their hopes on an affordable Tesla in the near future. Now, the fate of an affordable Tesla hinges on whether the company can actually overcome the enormous hurdles to achieving Level 5 autonomy. To Musk’s credit, he vaguely hinted at this several years ago, though it’s still a bitter pill for potential buyers.

Musk and Tesla have been teasing the idea of the $25,000 (dubbed by the press the Model 2) production car since at least 2018. So far, though, nothing has really come close to that mark—aside from models eligible for substantial tax rebates. Now, in an earnings call today, Musk was directly asked, “When can we expect Tesla to give us the $25,000 regular non-Robotaxi car model?”

The Future Is Autonomous, Apparently

To this, Musk fumbled his words before ultimately saying, “I think we’ve been very clear that the future is autonomous.”He then rambled for over a minute about how autonomy is the future, how Tesla has been saying that for years, and how the Cybercab is a revolutionary production vehicle. Only after this did he finally address the actual question stating, “Basically, having a regular 25K model is pointless. It would be silly. It would be completely at odds with what we believe.”

Notably, Musk had already hinted at this stance back in 2020, during Battery Day, when he claimed, “About three years from now, we’re confident we can make a very compelling $25,000 electric vehicle that’s also fully autonomous.” What he conveniently didn’t mention at the time—perhaps because even he didn’t know yet—was that this supposed budget EV would likely ship without a steering wheel or pedals.

More: Cybercab Has No Charging Port, But Tesla Promises 90% Wireless Efficiency

Roadblocks to Autonomy (And That $25K Price Tag)

Musk’s current logic seems to be, in part, that by making it drivable, it won’t be as good as a “dedicated autonomous car.” While that might hold some merit, it also means any such vehicle will be delayed until Tesla can crack Level 5 autonomy—something many experts believe is still a decade or more away. And even if Tesla manages to perfect the technology, they still face a regulatory mountain to climb, as approval for fully autonomous vehicles isn’t likely to happen anytime soon.

Of course, he said something almost identical in 2018 to YouTuber Marques Brownlee. “I think in order for us to get up to…a 25,000 car, that’s something we can do… but if we work really hard I think maybe we can do that in about 3 years,” he said.

The pandemic undeniably slowed things down for everyone, but here we are six years later with no concrete date in sight for a $25,000 Tesla. Honestly, at this point, why even build the Roadster if “autonomy is the future,”? Nobody wants a supercar that doesn’t have a wheel and pedals.