Tesla is likely to reveal a smaller electric vehicle to be designed in China in November 2021 at the Guangzhou Motor Show, Chinese media reports.
Dubbed “Model 2” by Tesla observers, the compact electric car was one of several revelations by Tesla CEO and co-founder Elon Musk on EV manufacturer’s Battery Day in 2020.
It will be the first locally designed electric car made at Tesla’s China Design Center, and will be made at the Shanghai gigafactory.
According to a report by China’s technology news site sina.com, the new vehicle will be a “hatchback version of the Model 3” and is expected to sell for around 160,000 yuan ($ A32,526 converted) and will have a range of somewhere between 350-450km in range.
According to the report, Tesla has already started the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process for the production of “Model 2”, which according to another report on the Tesmanian blog will be produced at a second phase plant at the Shanghai.
The EIA refers to a “new model early launch project”, the production of which will take six months to be tested.
When the compact electric car enters the lucrative and gigantic Chinese market, it will not be too soon for Tesla.
Although Tesla proved to be a dominant force in the Chinese automotive market, it came in second, behind Wuling’s tiny HongGuang Mini EV, which in December 2020 sold 33,000 units against 23,000 for Model 3.
The Model 2 is unlikely to be able to compete with Wuling’s tiny prices of 28,880 yuan ($ A5,870 converted), but it will, of course, have the advantage in terms of Tesla technology and software.
It is unclear whether the compact “Model 2” will eventually reach Australia, although considering that it is now confirmed that Tesla is preparing to ship the Model 3s built in Shanghai to the local market at the moment, this is not outside the realm of possibility – although we hope to see Model Y here first.
Bridie Schmidt is principal reporter for The Driven, a sister site to Renew Economy. She specializes in writing about new technologies and has been writing about electric vehicles for two years. She has a keen interest in the role that zero-emission transport has to play in sustainability and is a co-organizer of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum.