On Tuesday local time, Martin Eberhard, former CEO of Tesla, expressed regret in an interview about Tesla's possible abandonment of plans for budget models.
Eberhard was one of Tesla's co founders and served as the company's CEO until the end of 2007. During his speech at the HSBC Global Investment Summit in Hong Kong, he expressed concerns about Tesla's strategic choices.
"I have recently seen that Tesla has decided not to pursue their economy model Model 2 because they believe it cannot compete with low-end cars in China. This is regrettable and they may want to reconsider."
Last Friday, news of Tesla's cancellation of plans to launch cheaper models was exposed, triggering a strong reaction from Tesla's current CEO Elon Musk.
Musk responded to speculation from a Tesla investor on his social media platform X, stating that Tesla will release Robotaxi on August 8th this year.
Some argue that both autonomous taxis and economy Tesla have always planned to use the same platform. The previously exposed news may have been a misjudgment, and the company may prioritize the autonomous driving version, which is more in line with Tesla's technological attributes.
Another viewpoint points out that from a cost perspective, it is almost impossible for unmanned compact electric vehicles to achieve commercial operation to be priced lower than the Model 3, which makes the idea of the Model 2 equally unrealistic.
Tesla has just experienced a difficult quarter, with delivery volume plummeting to a new low in the past five quarters. This is also the first time in nearly four years that Tesla's quarterly delivery volume has decreased year-on-year, far below Wall Street's previous expectations.
In the main market of the United States, Tesla is facing a period of slowing growth. The federal and state governments in the United States are providing economic incentives for car purchasing and manufacturing, hoping to achieve the goal of electric vehicles accounting for 50% of all new car sales by 2030.
Under incentives, the actual demand of consumers did not increase as expected. Due to restrictions on prices, interest rates, and charging facilities, the electric vehicle market has experienced oversupply.
The Autoweek website stated that the slowdown in global demand for electric vehicles has had a wide-ranging impact on the automotive industry, including layoffs, production cuts, and strategic adjustments. US startups Rivian and Lucid have released production forecasts for 2024 that are significantly lower than market expectations. Rivian has also announced 10% layoffs, indicating that the industry may face a short-term slowdown in growth due to the transition to electric vehicles.
Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting of AutoForecast Solutions, said that mainstream consumers were more cautious than the main consumers of electric vehicles now. The rapid rise of China's automobile industry also made Tesla face unprecedented challenges.
In China, Tesla faces particularly arduous challenges. In terms of price, Tesla's entry-level model Model 3 has many competitors in the mid size electric vehicle market. Compared to the starting price of at least $35000 in the US market, pure electric vehicles with similar sizes in the Chinese market have at least 30 or more styles participating in market competition in the range of $13800 to $27600 (100000 to 200000 RMB).
Competitors targeting the Model 3, such as the Geely 007, Xiaomi SU7, and Xiaopeng P7i, generally have price advantages over the Model 3. In addition, due to the relatively sufficient charging infrastructure, Tesla is unable to consider its dominant charging pile layout in the North American market as one of its competitive advantages.
Interestingly, Musk's recent announcement of the debut of autonomous taxis on August 8th has not been fully accepted by the public due to its past uncertainty in product release schedules.
From the Model 2, which currently has unclear information, to the Roadster 2 sports car and Cybertruck models that have been clearly planned but have been delayed multiple times, Tesla's record in adhering to the forecast schedule is not perfect. Cybertruck has finally entered the production phase after experiencing several ticket cancellations; The Roadster 2 model is still nowhere to be seen.
For Musk, the biggest impact of whether the Model 2 is cancelled or not on Tesla is that in the foreseeable future, Tesla will not have any new models to compete in the mainstream Volkswagen market. As time goes on, the negative impact of existing car models gradually aging on Tesla will only become stronger.
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