2025 Tesla Model 2 and Model Q production timing confirmed

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has outlined a 2025 production start for the all-electric car-maker’s upcoming “next-generation low-cost vehicle”, and confirmed the new model will initially be produced at Giga Texas before being outsourced to other plants around the world.

Musk made the announcement overnight during an investor’s earnings call and said the manufacturing processes set to be employed for Tesla’s new entry-level model/s will be revolutionary and head and shoulders above any other vehicle production on the planet.

“I’m often optimistic with providing times, but our current schedule says that we’ll start production towards the end of 2025 – so sometime in the second half [of the year],” he said.

“There’s a lot of new… revolutionary manufacturing technology here.

“This is not sort of a ‘off the shelf’, just works type of thing.

“That will be a challenging production ramp… we’ll be sleeping on the [production] line practically… but I am confident that once it is going it will be head and shoulders above any other manufacturing technology that exists anywhere else in the world.”

The exact nature of this groundbreaking manufacturing tech is yet to be revealed but should enable Tesla to produce in excess of five million examples of the new low-cost model – two are on the cards – per annum when at full capacity.

Yet the real achievement will be the viability of a circa-$40,000 asking price for Tesla’s new entry-level EVs.

Musk has spoken previously about the next-generation Model 3 and Model Y platform being 50 per cent cheaper to produce than the current architecture – as well as being smaller – so it makes sense from a production perspective for a smaller model to leverage the same hardware.

Previous reports and intel have suggested there’ll be a traditional passenger car and SUV version of the ‘next-generation low-cost vehicle’, which has thus far only been teased in the latter form as a shrunken Model Y lookalike.

A compact electric SUV makes the most sense given global sales trends at the moment, with rumours swirling of the model potentially wearing a ‘Model Q’ nameplate, whereas the expected sedan or hatch is tipped to be known as the Model 2 to reflect their positioning below the Model Y and Model 3 respectively.

It will likely be a while before we see Tesla’s new babies in Australian showrooms, given Gigafactory Mexico was nominated by Musk as the second facility set to produce the low-cost model before an expansion outside of North America, with ties to a potential site in India being reported by international media.