What official statements has Tesla made about the Model 2’s price and production timeline?
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Executive summary
Tesla has repeatedly framed a coming “affordable” next‑generation vehicle as a corporate objective — often referenced as a roughly $25,000 target by company executives including Elon Musk — but the company has not issued a single, formal “Model 2” price announcement and its public comments about timing have been shifting and deliberately vague [1] [2]. Reporting from Tesla’s own documents and mainstream outlets shows promises and internal targets for mid‑2020s production windows, while some outlets and internal memos later signaled changes or cancellations — illustrating a gap between Tesla’s aspirational language and a concrete, publicly confirmed build schedule [3] [4] [5].
1. What Tesla has said about the price: a stated goal, not a firm sticker
Tesla executives, including Elon Musk, have publicly described a target for a mass‑market car “around $25k,” and company comments and summaries of corporate goals repeatedly invoke that approximate figure as the affordability benchmark for the next‑generation platform rather than a confirmed MSRP for a specific model name [1] [6]. Multiple industry writeups and fact‑checks note that the $25,000 figure is framed internally and aspirationally — journalists and analysts treat it as a stated company objective rather than an official, final price that Tesla has set in regulatory filings or an MSRP posted on Tesla.com [1] [6].
2. What Tesla has said about timing: optimistic targets, shifting calendars
Tesla has signaled mid‑2025 to late‑2025 windows in various public statements and filings tied to its next‑generation platform and vehicle rollout ambitions, with some corporate presentations and summaries suggesting U.S. deliveries or production could target the second half of 2025 for a model using elements of that platform [3]. At the same time, Tesla’s Q1 public statements and subsequent commentary referred more broadly to “more affordable models” and an updated vehicle line‑up intended to accelerate launches, language that leaves the concrete start‑of‑production date ambiguous and tied to program changes [4].
3. Conflicting signals from internal memos and external reporting
Independent reporting has repeatedly captured friction between Tesla’s public optimism and internal planning: outlets citing internal memos have at times reported that planned production of the entry‑level project was scrapped or reworked, and other reporting shows suppliers being told to prepare for mid‑2025 starts — a patchwork of signals that reinforces Tesla’s public posture as aspirational while operational reality remained uncertain [5] [7]. Industry fact‑checks emphasize that bold low‑price claims — and very low‑price viral rumors — lack any confirmed Tesla announcement and would require unprecedented cost breakthroughs to be credible [1].
4. Naming and framing: “Model 2” is a media nickname, Tesla distances itself
The label “Model 2” largely originated outside Tesla; company communications and Elon Musk have distanced themselves from that specific name while using codenames like “Redwood” internally and talking about “next‑gen” or “more affordable” vehicles in public briefings, making clear that there is no official “Model 2” product name confirmed in Tesla’s public disclosures [1] [5]. That naming gap has allowed third‑party outlets to conflate iterative targets (price goals, platform milestones) into coverage that reads like an official product announcement when Tesla itself has not published MSRP or definitive dates [1].
5. How to reconcile statements: aspirational policy vs. verifiable commitments
The verifiable, official elements from Tesla are aspirational targets and program descriptions — a corporate goal of roughly $25k affordability and statements connecting the next‑gen platform to mid‑2025 timelines — but no single source among Tesla’s public filings or press releases provides a definitive, company‑issued price tag or a fixed production start date for a vehicle called “Model 2” [1] [3] [2]. Independent reporting and fact‑checks underscore that broader claims (ultra‑low prices, fall‑2025 launches, or exotic new battery chemistries) are not supported by Tesla announcements and often stem from speculation, supplier notes, or misread internal materials [1] [7] [4].