Tesla developing smaller platform for Model Y and 3

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has provided first details for the all-new platform that will underpin the next-generation Tesla Model 3 and Model Y, confirming it will shrink in size and cost roughly half as much to produce compared to the current architecture.

On a call with investors, the US electric car-maker’s boss announced the new platform would be smaller compared to the current Model 3 and Model Y, but, crucially, would cost around as half as much to produce in a bid to chase even higher profit margins.

Musk refused to give any dates for when the new platform will be introduced.

However, he went on to reveal that the second instalments of the Model 3 and Model Y would be produced in volumes that will overshadow the first-generation cars that currently make up more than 95 per cent of Tesla’s total deliveries.

“The next-generation vehicle will be about half the cost of the 3/Y platform and it will be smaller,” Musk said.

 “It will, I think, certainly exceed the production of all other vehicles combined.”

According to Musk, as well as slashing the unit price of the platform, other cost-cutting measures will see the car-maker build two units of its next-gen Tesla Model 3 and Y for what it currently costs to build one.

For the second quarter of 2022, Tesla has reported a gross profit margin on its vehicles at an industry-leading 27.9 per cent.

With the smaller platform confirmed, a smaller entry-level model priced around $US25,000 ($A39,500), rumoured to be called the Tesla Model 2, might now be fast-tracked for sale to rival cars like the Volkswagen ID.3.

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